Body cam video shows frightening moments mother crashes during chase with children in car

CLAYTON — News Center 7 obtained video that shows the troubling aftermath of a woman driving off the road and into a utility pole after she allegedly refused to stop for police.

The incident happened on Tuesday with two young children in the vehicle.

The body cam video was recorded by West Milton police as a pursuit ended in Clayton after starting in the small Miami County town.

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According to police, their investigation into what appears to be a mother’s dangerous driving with her two young sons is ongoing.

The pursuit started in the village of West Milton on Ohio Route 48 near Ohio 571 in a construction zone that led to a lot of complaints.

The West Milton officer said he spotted the woman speeding in the area and tried to pull her over. The officer said the woman would not pull over and followed her till she lost control and on Ohio 48 in Clayton near Sweet Potato Ridge Road and crashed.

The officer’s body camera showed him walking up to the crashed SUV after the driver crashed into a utility pole. The video shows the officer pulling a 6-year-old boy out of the crumpled vehicle.

In the video, you see the officer place the screaming child down in the yard away from the vehicle. According to police, it appears the child had a broken ankle.

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Neighbors who live close to where the crash happened pulled a 2-year-old child out of his car seat and the officer checked on the female driver, who he found on the ground, the body cam video showed.

Neighbors told News Center 7 they heard the crash and noticed the car hit one pole, spun around, and hit another. They walked to the scene and noticed the car catching fire.

Joe Gorney, who lives nearby, said, “So we moved the children further away from the vehicle and waited for medics to arrive.

Police said they had trouble speaking with the woman they believed was the children’s mother.

West Milton Police Chief Doyle Wright said, “He was able to speak to her briefly. It was garbled. He wasn’t about to make much sense.”

Doyle said the woman drove into a utility pole and her airbags went off. However, his officer did think he smelled alcohol on the woman’s breath and suspected impaired driving.

“We’re treating it as an OVI crash and we are processing it in that manner,” Doyle said.

The two young children were taken to Children’s Hospital. The police chief said the 6-year-old was not strapped into a child seat or booster seat of any kind.

The woman was taken to another local hospital. All three have since been released.

Investigators said they are looking at the entire chase and said the driver was all over the road in a lot of instances.

“We had some witnesses come forward and say they thought she was going to hit them,” Doyle said.

The chief said he felt fortunate, not only did the mom and her sons survive but while she was driving at nearly 70 miles per hour in the area, she did not hit anyone walking or any other drivers.

The woman is likely to face several charges when police finish their investigation.

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