Pottstown woman faces jail for DUI crash
NORRISTOWN >> A Pottstown woman whose vehicle plunged from a secondfloor parking garage in the borough and landed on its roof on the street below is facing jail time after she admitted to driving drunk and endangering a 4-yearold child in the car.
Tarwinder Kaur, 26, of the 200 block of King Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 72 hours to six months in the county jail after she pleaded guilty to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and recklessly endangering another person in connection with the April 24 crash in the area of King Street and Buttonwood Alley.
Judge Thomas C. Branca, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, ordered Kaur to report to the jail on Nov. 2 to begin serving the sentence. The judge said Kaur also must complete two years’ probation following parole and undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation.
The investigation began about 7:30 p.m. when Pottstown police responded to the area of King Street Commons in the 200 block of King Street for report of a vehicle crash. Arriving officers found a 2016 Toyota Avalon overturned, setting on its roof, in Buttonwood Alley.
Witnesses told police a 4-year-old child “crawled out of the vehicle without being helped,” according to the criminal complaint filed by Pottstown Police Officer Timothy Coffland.
“There was no proper child car seat inside of the vehicle,” Coffland alleged in the arrest affidavit, adding the investigation determined Kaur “lost control of the vehicle and drove through a brick wall of the second story of the parking garage overturning her vehicle and landing in the alleyway behind the parking garage.”
As officers spoke with Kaur at the scene they detected an odor of alcohol on her breath and Kaur kept repeating, “they are going to hate me,” according to the criminal complaint.
“Tarwinder was exhibiting slurred speech throughout our conversation. Tarwinder at one point in the conversation said it was all her fault because she was drunk,” Coffland alleged.
Kaur and the child were treated at a local hospital for minor injuries, police said. Subsequent tests determined Kaur had a blood-alcohol content of 0.22 percent, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
During a follow up interview by police several days after the incident, Kaur told authorities she was headed to the Sunoco station on West High Street on the night of the incident and “lost control of the vehicle due to confusing the gas pedal with the brake pedal,” according to the criminal complaint.
By pleading guilty to the reckless endangerment charge, Kaur admitted that she recklessly engaged in conduct that placed another person in danger of death or serious bodily injury.
Charges of endangering the welfare of a child and operating a vehicle with an improper child restraint system were dismissed against Kaur as part of the plea agreement.