A 43-year-old Providence woman is facing drunken driving charges after her SUV struck a curb on Garfield Avenue in Cranston with a 6-year-old child asleep in the back seat, and police say her breath-test readings topped .37 — nearly five times Rhode Island's legal limit. Natalia Garcia was taken to a hospital for detoxification following the crash and is due in court next month.
Cranston police officers responded to a reported crash involving a disabled Kia Sportage on Garfield Avenue near the Stop & Shop on Oct. 11, according to WJAR. Witnesses told police the SUV had left a nearby Texas Roadhouse parking lot, swerved, nearly struck several other vehicles and hit a curb before coming to a stop. A witness and her boyfriend reportedly discovered a young child asleep in the SUV's back seat and told police the driver appeared unsafe to be behind the wheel.
When officers arrived, they said Garcia had slurred speech, smelled of alcohol and could not stand or walk without assistance, per the same report. Police said they found four small liquor bottles inside the vehicle — three of them empty — and a fifth empty bottle in Garcia's pocket. According to the report, an officer did not complete a full field sobriety test because of Garcia's condition and heavy rain at the scene.
Breath Tests Showed Readings Over .37
Breath tests administered to Garcia reportedly produced readings of .370 and .377, far above the state's .08 threshold for impaired driving. She was charged with driving under the influence with a child younger than 13 in the vehicle and a blood-alcohol concentration of .15 or greater, a charge tied to Rhode Island's DUI statute under Rhode Island General Laws Section 31-27-2. Police also issued traffic summonses alleging registration and license violations, lack of insurance, improper display of plates, a lane violation, and possession of alcohol in a vehicle, the report said.
The 6-year-old child was evaluated at the scene by Cranston Fire and Rescue and appeared uninjured, the station reported. The child's father later arrived and picked up the child, while Garcia was taken to a hospital for detoxification before being summoned to appear for arraignment on Nov. 5 in Third Division District Court, which handles such proceedings according to the Rhode Island District Court. The report also noted that Garcia pleaded no contest in a prior DUI case in 2017.
Garcia's Arrest Dated Oct. 11
The Cranston Police Department's online arrest log dates Natalia Garcia's DUI arrest to Oct. 11, 2026, and gives her address as 144 Hudson St., Apt. #3, Providence. The arrest followed a call near 204 Garfield Ave. and involved a child younger than 13 and breath-alcohol readings of .370 and .377—the same incident reported by WJAR.
Impaired Driving Remains a Persistent Problem Statewide
Garcia's case lands amid broader state data on impaired driving. Rhode Island law enforcement agencies made 3,227 DUI arrests in 2025, and 70% of those arrested for DUI refused to submit to a chemical test, according to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. A separate federal report notes that 2023 alcohol-impaired-fatality data for the state was not available at the time of publication, per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
