A Pembroke Pines police officer waiting at a red light says he watched a 5-year-old girl standing on the back seat of a Lexus, her upper body hanging out the right rear window, as the car rolled through the intersection of Sheridan Street and Flamingo Road. The driver, 26-year-old Isabella Fernanda Saenz, is now facing drunken driving and child neglect charges tied to the encounter.
According to WPLG Local 10, the officer saw Saenz cross a solid white line as the light turned green, with her daughter still hanging out the window in the moments after. When he pulled her over, the officer reported that Saenz smelled of alcohol and had glossy eyes. She reportedly told police she was driving home from a child's birthday party in Miramar after having a margarita.
Saenz failed field sobriety testing at the scene, the outlet reports, and a breathalyzer later showed her blood alcohol content above 0.12 percent — well over Florida's legal limit of 0.08 percent. The arrest report states that Saenz was unaware her daughter was unbelted and hanging out of the window, according to the same account. She was booked into jail following the traffic stop, and a judge set her bond at $8,000 on Monday. As of Tuesday, she no longer appeared in Broward County jail records, the report notes.
Enhanced Penalties for Driving Impaired With a Child
Florida law treats DUI cases involving a minor passenger far more seriously than standard impaired-driving charges. Under Florida Statute § 316.193(4), driving under the influence with a child under 18 in the vehicle triggers mandatory enhanced penalties, raising first-offense fines to between $1,000 and $2,000 and extending the maximum jail term from six months to nine months, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Saenz also faces a separate felony charge under Florida Statute § 827.03, which classifies child neglect without great bodily harm as a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, per the Florida Senate. Separately, state law under Florida Statute § 316.613 requires that children age five and younger be secured in a crash-tested, federally approved restraint device, with violations carrying a $60 base fine and three points on a driver's license.
DCF Referrals Often Follow These Arrests
When a driver is arrested for DUI with a child present in Florida, arresting officers routinely notify the Florida Department of Children and Families, opening a parallel child protective investigation into the family's welfare, according to Musca Law. It remains unclear whether such a referral has been made in Saenz's case. Records show she had received multiple Broward County traffic tickets dating back to 2023, some of which were later dismissed.
The stretch of road where Saenz was stopped has drawn safety attention before. The intersection of Sheridan Street and Flamingo Road was outfitted with red-light camera enforcement back in 2011 to address frequent lane changes and high collision rates along the busy suburban corridor, according to a report at the time from CBS News. The Pembroke Pines Police Department Traffic Unit maintains dedicated DUI enforcement teams and takes part in statewide initiatives such as Buckle-Up Florida and Arrive Alive aimed at impaired drivers and child restraint compliance.
A Pattern Across South Florida
Saenz's arrest echoes another case just weeks earlier: in August, Miramar Police arrested a 25-year-old woman on DUI and child neglect charges after finding an unsecured 2-month-old infant in the front passenger seat following a near-collision with an 18-wheeler, WPLG Local 10 reported at the time. Broward County saw 3,314 DUI arrests in 2023 alone, the third-highest total of any Florida county, behind only Hillsborough and Pinellas, according to Trusted DUI Lawyers.
The stakes of unrestrained children in vehicles are stark. National crash data cited by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles shows that nearly half of the 85 child passengers killed in motor vehicle crashes nationwide in 2022 were completely unrestrained at the time of the collision. Broward County alone recorded 36,871 total traffic crashes in 2025, including 199 fatal collisions and 210 deaths — an average of more than 100 crashes every day, per crash data compiled for Fort Lauderdale-area attorneys.
What happens next in Saenz's case remains to be seen. It is not yet known whether the Broward State Attorney's Office will formally file the third-degree felony child neglect charge alongside the DUI count, or how her earlier traffic citations will ultimately be resolved.
