MUM ‘DRUNK, SPEEDING’ BEFORE CRASH THAT KILLED SON
LAS VEGAS: A toddler died after his mother crashed her car while racing the boy’s father at 194km/h.
It is alleged Lauren Prescia, 23, was drink driving when the crash took place in Las Vegas. Prescia smashed her Hyundai Sonata into a concrete sign in a 70km/h zone while on her way to a custody exchange.
The high-speed impact was so severe, her one-year-old son Royce Jones, who was riding in the back seat, was ejected from the vehicle. Police arrived at the scene at 7.30pm, 15 minutes after the accident took place, to find Prescia with bloodshot eyes.
“(An officer) could smell that she was emitting a strong odour of an alcoholic beverage,” according to an arrest report. The officer also noticed her speech pattern was slurred.
The child’s father, Cameron Hubbard-Jones, was driving on the same road when he witnessed the crash. He allegedly told officers he and Prescia were in the process of a child custody exchange and he was talking with her on the phone when Prescia “told him she was going to beat him home and began speeding”.
As she passed his car, Jones claimed to have told her to
“slow down because she had his son in the car with her”.
However, Prescia allegedly continued to plough through the intersection at high speed, and while trying to change lanes, she hit a car, lost control and struck a marquee sign.
Ejected from the car, baby Royce, was still strapped into his car seat when his father stopped and ran to him.
Royce sustained severe head trauma and was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Officers said Prescia told them she had drunk two 12ounce White Claw hard seltzers around 4pm.
It was revealed she was travelling at 191km/h with the throttle at 100 per cent five seconds before the collision.
Two-and-a-half seconds before the fatal accident, her car reached 194km/h.
Prescia was charged with felony reckless driving; driving under the influence of alcohol resulting in death; and abuse, neglect or endangerment of a child.