A woman from Minnesota has been arrested following a tragic incident where her SUV crashed into a water-filled ditch on Saturday, resulting in the death of her 1-year-old son, who was apparently ejected from the vehicle and trapped underneath it.
Authorities report that 28-year-old Rachale Francine Peloquin was driving under the influence around 6:30 p.m. with her three children and another adult in the SUV, the Star Tribune reported.
The police report indicates that the SUV was heading east on Highway 36 and took an exit south onto Highway 61 “at a high speed.” Peloquin lost control on the exit ramp, and the vehicle flipped into a ditch approximately 30 feet from the road, landing upside down in about 1 to 2 feet of water.
Bystanders tried to help but couldn’t move the SUV. Firefighters arrived and managed to extract the vehicle from the water, rescuing the 18-month-old, named Revon Melvin Anthony Todd, but he was declared dead at the site.
Peloquin said she was driving the children to visit their grandmother, claiming 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 detected alcohol on her breath. Peloquin admitted to having smoked marijuana that day but insisted she hadn’t consumed alcohol since the previous night. According to the criminal complaint, her preliminary breath test showed a blood alcohol content of 0.172 percent, which is double the legal limit.
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.
