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Credit: New York State Police
A 12-year-old girl called 911 from a car on Interstate 84 in New York earlier this week. The emergency? She reported her mother was not speaking properly and was weaving into other lanes while she was driving.
Now, Jamie Hicks, 48, of Islip, N.Y., faces more than a year in jail on felony drunken driving charges.
The girl and a 10-year-old were still in the car July 25, when New York State police arrested Hicks and charged her with driving while intoxicated. According to police reports, her blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.
The New York Post reports the arrest was made at about 6 p.m.
Hicks was lodged in the Putnam County Jail on $1,000 bail and was released today.
Capt. Robert Nuzzo of the New York State Police Department tells ParentDish Hicks is scheduled to appear in court at 3 p.m. on Aug. 17. He says she was arrested under Leandra's Law, a New York law that makes it a felony to drive drunk with children in the vehicle.
The law, which went into effect Dec. 18, 2009, was named after Leandra Rosado, an 11-year-old girl who was killed on the West Side Highway in New York City two months earlier when her friend's mother, Carmen Huertas, flipped the car they were in while allegedly drunk. Six other children also were injured during the incident.
If found guilty of the felony, Nuzzo tells ParentDish, Hicks could face more than a year behind bars.
They need to pass the Leandra law in every state maybe then more people would think twice about having kids in the car with them if they've been drinking!
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