Bellport Woman Arrested For DWI With Child, Grandchildren In Car
BELLPORT, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - Suffolk County Police have arrested a woman for driving drunk with three children in the car.
Zona Taylor, 43, of Bellport, was arrested shortly after driving off from an accident on Montauk Highway at the corner of North Prospect Avenue in Patchogue on Saturday.
1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reports
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"She fled the scene of the accident," said Suffolk County police Detective Sgt. Timothy Gozaloff. But she didn't get too far, "because it had become disabled due to the damage from the car accident," he said.
So Taylor grabbed her 8-year-old child and two grandchildren, 4 and 6 – all of them injured from the initial accident, and ran, police told WCBS 880's Alex Silverman.
WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reports
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A witness who saw Taylor take off from the accident scene followed her 2005 Dodge Neon and called police.
Officers located Taylor in Blue Point as she ran from her car with the three children, police said. Police said she plowed into some bushes before trying to make a run for it.
"When the cops flew around the corner, she ran up on [a neighbor's] front lawn with the kids, she was scurrying them along. And then the cops came out, the officer was just yelling at her, 'why were you running from me, why were you running from me?'" a neighbor told 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria.
Neighbors described Taylor as lethargic and incoherent when police arrived.
"The children were young, they were in the back seat. I know one was in a car seat. She was trying to get them out as fast as possible and then she started to basically run across the front lawn," a neighbor told D'Auria.
According to police, an adult who was also in Taylor's car, along with the three children, were injured in the crash. A person in the other car involved in the accident was also hurt. They were all taken to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue.
Taylor was arrested for DWI, aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child passenger 15 years old or younger - known as Leandra's Law - leaving the scene of an accident with injury and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Leandra's Law carries stiffer penalties for offenders since children are involved.
She is due to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip.
The children's injuries were not serious, and family members were watching them Sunday afternoon.
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