Crash with tot in tow latest low point in opioid scourge

The devastating opiate epidemic has hit yet another new low, with a Plymouth mother accused of crashing her car when she overdosed on heroin with her 3-year-old son in the back seat.

And then, police said, rescue workers brought the mother back to life with Narcan.

Jocelyn MacRoberts, 34, was behind the wheel when she used heroin and veered off a Wareham road in broad daylight Friday afternoon, slamming her car into a snowbank and bushes, authorities say.

The only good thing to come out of this harrowing heroin-fueled crash is that neither mother nor son suffered physical injuries in the crash.

When the cops arrived at the scene, they found MacRoberts slumped over the wheel. They had to break a back window to get into the car, Wareham police Chief Kevin Walsh said in a press release. Her toddler son was sitting in a car seat — but it wasn’t properly secured.

The mother was taken to Tobey Hospital in Wareham, while her son was taken to the police station to be reunited with other family members.

MacRoberts will be summoned to Wareham District Court to face a slew of charges, including operating under the influence of drugs, first offense, operating after suspension, operating to endanger, child endangerment while operating under the influence, marked lanes violation and failure to properly restrain a child under age 5.

No one answered the door at her home yesterday.

In October 2016, a similarly horrible scenario played out in Indiana when police found mother Erika Hurt passed out in the driver’s seat of her car, with a syringe in her hand and her 10-month-old son in the back. She had overdosed on heroin and the cops took a photo of the unconscious Hurt to show the drug’s danger.

The photo quickly went viral — and prompted Hurt to get clean.

“I was so hurt and embarrassed. I had no clue that the picture had ever been taken,” Hurt told NBC News last year in October on her oneyear sobriety date. “But at the same time, it was kind of a really big eye opener to see myself like that.”

MacRoberts could have easily killed her son, or someone else, while driving high on heroin.

It’s nauseating to think of how scared her 3-year-old boy must have been when their car crashed and his mother passed out, not able to comfort him.

If this isn’t rock bottom for this Plymouth mother and a reason to get clean and sober, I’m not sure what is.