Toddler gets ‘trapped’ under babysitter’s tire after falling from car, CT cops say
A 2-year-old boy fell out of his babysitter’s car and onto a road, resulting in the woman running him over in Connecticut, police said.
A nearby resident heard the woman screaming for help and saw the toddler “trapped” underneath her vehicle’s back passenger-side tire in an intersection in Clinton on May 14, according to an affidavit.
The boy was taken to Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital with injuries that were believed to be serious, the affidavit says.
An arrest warrant was issued for Maria Santiago, 55, of Clinton, who turned herself in to Connecticut State Police on July 29, authorities said in a news release
She is charged with four counts of risk of injury to a minor and failure to apply a child restraint system, court records show.
Information regarding her legal representation wasn’t listed in court records the morning of July 31.
The Connecticut Department of Children and Families told the Connecticut Post on July 30 that the agency is investigating the “unfortunate incident.”
The day the 2-year-old fell out of Santiago’s car, she was watching three other children — another 2-year-old, a 4-year-old and a 9-year-old — at her home, the affidavit says.
The 9-year-old told an officer that Santiago left them alone on May 14 to pick up an 11-year-old girl, who she “picks up every day” and “lives next door,” according to the affidavit. A witness whose name is redacted from the affidavit told the officer that Santiago asked her to watch the children while she was gone and that she had left boiling chicken on the stove, the affidavit says.
When the officer spoke with the 11-year-old, the girl said Santiago picked her up from a bus stop before the 2-year-old boy, who was unsecured in the back seat, fell out of the car, the affidavit says.
She told the officer “Maria never has the child wear a seat belt,” according to the affidavit.
The girl also told police that Santiago typically has several children inside her car when Santiago picks her up from the bus stop, but the 2-year-old was the only child in the car the day of the incident, according to the affidavit.
“She said Maria takes care of a lot of little kids and sometimes she leaves the older ones,” the affidavit says.
During the drive on May 14, the 11-year-old was sitting in the front passenger seat and noticed Santiago “driving faster than usual” as she made a “sharp left turn,” the affidavit says.
An investigation revealed the boy opened the door and fell out of the vehicle, according to the affidavit.
His car seat was not secured and the child locks in Santiago’s car weren’t activated, according to the affidavit.
After authorities responded to the scene, Santiago told an officer that the toddler “usually gets out of the car seat” and that when she “went to the bus stop to pick up (her) neighbor,” the boy “just opened the door,” according to the affidavit.
Santiago, who was having a panic attack, was also taken to the hospital, the affidavit says.
The 2-year-old had a lacerated liver, contusions in his lungs, bleeding inside of his head and needed to be intubated upon arriving at the hospital, the Connecticut Post reported.
He left the hospital on May 30, according to the newspaper.
Santiago was due in court on July 30, state police said.
Now she’s awaiting a plea hearing, according to court records. Her next court date is scheduled for Aug. 26.
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