Woman arrested after fleeing Alameda injury vehicle collision

Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)

Aug. 21--ALAMEDA -- Detectives with the police department's major-accident investigation team were investigating a multivehicle injury collision, authorities said Thursday.

Around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, police officers and firefighters responded to Grand Street and Otis Drive on the city's South Shore for a report of a hit-and-run collision.

When officers arrived, they found three vehicles, including one lodged up against a home, and later learned that witnesses had seen one vehicle speeding, weaving around vehicles in roadway lanes and even driving on the wrong side against oncoming traffic.

Soon after running through a red light and causing the collision, that vehicle's driver fled on foot with a small child, leaving another person trapped inside. Officers later found the person and a 5-year-old child in a nearby neighborhood and learned none of the three were wearing seat belts.

Four of five people involved in the collision were treated at trauma centers for injuries. Investigators found the driver, identified only as an adult woman, who fled was driving an unregistered vehicle without insurance on a suspended driver's license.

She was arrested on suspicion of felony reckless driving and hit-and-run, child endangerment and other vehicle code violations, police said.

Police cited hundreds of drivers for traffic infractions earlier this year in the wake of a pair of fatal vehicle-vs.-pedestrian collisions.