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Mother Accused of Fleeing DWI Crash Scene on Carroll Lane
Posted: Feb 12, 2013 12:46 PM by Janine Reyes
Updated: Feb 12, 2013 6:41 PM
CORPUS CHRISTI - The mother of two young children found herself jailed overnight for allegedly hitting a tree, making arrangements for her kids to leave, then running off on foot. According to police, 30-year-old Melissa Lopez rear-ended a Chevy Cavalier along Carroll Lane just after midnight.
Neighbors say moments after the crash they watched Lopez run into a tree, pull children from her car, then take off her license plates and run.
"Thank God that the car that ended up in our yard didn't have any passengers in the back seat because it would have been a fatality, most definitely," said neighbor Anita Perez.
She woke up around 2 a.m. to find a mangled car in her back yard. She also found two women inside. Both shaken up, one stuck.
"Really shaken up and she couldn't move and they had to bring in the heavy equipment to get her out from the car," Perez described. The two women in the Chevy Cavalier were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
The woman who lives there didn't want to give us her name, but she says that tree could have saved a life in her house. "I'm just grateful the tree was there to stop the car from hitting my mom's bedroom."
"She had the children in the car with her and they did remove the children before the cops got here," the woman said.
Police say once Lopez realized she could not drive away in her crashed Dodge Durango, she took the license plates off and asked a family member to take her 4 and 6 year old daughters. That relative was apparently following in Lopez in another vehicle. The children were taken to Driscoll Children's Hospital with facial injuries.
We're told a woman who witnessed the crash was also taken to the hospital. "She saw it all, she was just a few feet away, it startled her so much the paramedics had to transport her to the emergency room, because her heart rate and blood pressure was too high," one woman said.
A witness let police know Lopez was seen running through the Carroll Lane Apartments. She was tracked down and taken back to the accident scene by officers
Neighbors say potholes in the road, along with drizzle and wet roads may have contributed, but mainly they hope Lopez learns her lesson.
Lopez is charged with driving while intoxicated with a child, resisting arrest and driving with an invalid license. There's no word if Lopez could also face charges of intoxication assault for injuring the women in the other car.
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