A Minnesota woman is behind bars after she crashed her SUV into a watery ditch on Saturday, killing her 1-year-old son, who was apparently thrown from the vehicle and trapped under it.
Investigators say Rachale Francine Peloquin, 28, was driving drunk at about 6:30 p.m. with her three children and an adult in the vehicle, according to the Star Tribune.
A police report said the SUV was traveling east on Highway 36 and exited south onto Highway 61 “while traveling at a high rate of speed.” Peloquin lost control on the exit ramp and rolled into a ditch about 30 feet from the roadway, landing upside down in about 1 to 2 feet of water.
Passersby stopped to try to help out but were unable to move the vehicle. Fire personnel arrived on the scene and got the SUV out of the water, pulling the 18-month-old, identified as Revon Melvin Anthony Todd, out, but he was pronounced dead on the scene.
Peloquin told police she was taking the kids to see their grandmother, telling them she “lost control of the [expletive] wheel, and it spin out, and my baby was under the car.”
Although investigators said conditions were dry at the time, Peloquin insisted the road was wet from rain and said her tires were “somewhat” bald.
A trooper smelled alcohol on her breath. Peloquin said she had smoked marijuana that day but hadn’t had any alcohol since the night before. A preliminary breath test clocked her blood alcohol content at 0.172 percent, twice the legal limit, the criminal complaint said.
Troopers also found “three empty bottles of Fireball shooters on the roadway along the [SUV’s] trajectory,” the complaint said.
The other passengers in the SUV — a 6-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a 32-year-old man — were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries.
According to KSTP, the children both said their mother was driving, but they gave different statements about whether they were wearing seatbelts. Peloquin reportedly changed her story on the way to jail and said the man in the vehicle was driving and that she’d taken responsibility because she owned the SUV.
Peloquin was charged with criminal vehicular homicide.
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[Featured image: Rachale Peloquin/Ramsey County Jail]
