A Miami woman is facing DUI and child-abuse charges after state troopers say she crashed her car with her two young children inside on Mother's Day and the engine compartment caught fire. Investigators say a 12-year-old boy, carrying his 2-year-old sibling, managed to flag down a passing trooper, who stopped and helped pull the family to safety. Authorities say the children avoided major injuries and were later placed in their grandmother's care.
According to an affidavit described by the Tampa Free Press, troopers arrived to find a gray Nissan with heavy front-end damage and smoke pouring from the engine compartment before a fire was extinguished on scene. The driver, identified in court records as 33-year-old Iris Damaris Ruiz, allegedly smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and performed poorly on field-sobriety tasks. A breath test later registered 0.216 percent, according to the affidavit, which also states that Ruiz initially resisted leaving the vehicle while a witness tried to pull her out of the driver's seat.
As reported by Law&Crime, Ruiz was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight correctional facility and faces charges that include driving under the influence and two counts of child abuse. At a bond hearing, Judge Mindy Glazer denied a request for supervised visits and ordered Ruiz to have no contact with her children, telling the court, "Absolutely not. Let her get clean." Ruiz was released to Pretrial Services and is scheduled to return to court on July 9.
Trooper account and rescue
Local coverage cited by Infobae indicates that a trooper spotted the disabled vehicle on a connector road west of I-95 after the 12-year-old flagged him down. Before smoke and flames began coming from the engine compartment, a bystander had already tried to pull Ruiz from the driver's seat, according to those reports. Troopers say they used a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze and that neither child needed to be hospitalized. Both children were later turned over to their grandmother, the reports state.
What the charges mean
Under Florida law, driving under the influence is a criminal offense defined in Florida Statute 316.193, as published by the Florida Legislature. Child abuse and neglect are addressed in Chapter 827 of the state code, which is also maintained by the Florida Legislature. Prosecutors rely on those sections when bringing child-endangerment counts alongside DUI charges in cases where a caregiver's conduct is alleged to have placed minors at risk.
Ruiz's case remains open, and prosecutors have not announced any additional filings. According to local court records and reporting, her next hearing is set for July 9. The criminal investigation and early court proceedings are moving forward while related family-custody and dependency issues proceed on a separate track.
