A North Tonawanda woman is facing multiple charges after police say she was driving her two children around while intoxicated during Halloween trick-or-treating, with a breath test allegedly showing her blood alcohol content nearly double the legal limit. Amanda Lauzau, 39, was taken into custody following a caller's report that she was behind the wheel with her kids while drunk.
Caller's Tip Leads Police to Ward Road
According to WKBW, a caller told police that the suspect was allegedly driving her two children around while intoxicated during trick-or-treating. Police responded to the report just before 7 p.m. at the 200 block of Ward Road, where they interviewed Lauzau, who lives in North Tonawanda, as reported by wivb.com.
Police administered standardized field sobriety tests, which Lauzau allegedly failed. She then submitted to a chemical breath test, and the station's report notes she was held for arraignment afterward.
Breath Test Showed BAC Nearly Double the Limit
The chemical breath test showed Lauzau's BAC was 0.15%, which investigators described as almost double the legal limit, per the same account. Police filed a report with Child Protective Services following the incident, wivb.com notes.
Lauzau was charged with aggravated DWI with a passenger under 16, driving while intoxicated, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Under New York's Leandra's Law, a court must sentence anyone convicted of aggravated DWI with a child in the vehicle to either probation or a conditional discharge, according to the New York DMV. Separately, the agency's guide to license suspension and revocation identifies aggravated DWI based on alcohol concentration as a BAC of .18% or higher, per the New York DMV; Lauzau's reported 0.15% reading is below that threshold.
What New York Law Says About Driving Kids Drunk
State officials have warned that drivers who are intoxicated or impaired by drugs and cause serious physical injury to a child passenger can face a Class C felony punishable by up to 15 years in state prison, according to the New York Governor's Traffic Safety Committee. The same agency notes that parents, guardians or others legally responsible for a child who are charged with driving impaired while that child is a passenger are reported to the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment by the arresting agency.
The case lands amid a string of unsettling incidents involving drivers and children around Halloween events this year. In Brooklyn, 56-year-old Michael Marsh was arrested after allegedly driving onto a sidewalk and crashing into pedestrians at an NYPD trunk-or-treat event in Bushwick, according to FOX 5 New York. Police said Marsh crashed into a parked ambulance and struck multiple pedestrians, injuring three children ages 6, 8 and 11 along with three adult women, all of whom were hospitalized in stable condition. Marsh faces DWI charges in that case, while his 46-year-old passenger was not facing charges at the time of the report.
