A California woman was arrested on multiple charges after police say a hit-and-run turned into a dangerous drive along State Route 180 with two children still inside her vehicle. By the time the car was too damaged to continue, one of those children was injured and running toward a Fresno Police Department motor officer asking for help.
The incident happened on Saturday, August 29, after officers responded to a collision near Shields Avenue and Fowler Avenue at approximately 6:07 p.m. Police said the driver, later identified as 41-year-old Brooke Smith, was possibly under the influence when she left the crash scene with the children inside her vehicle.
Fresno motor officers eventually located the vehicle heading west on State Route 180, but rather than immediately closing the distance, officers received some help from above. The department’s AIR1 helicopter began tracking the vehicle while officers on motorcycles followed from a safer distance.
From overhead, the AIR1 crew watched as the vehicle traveled at high speeds, drove along the shoulder, tailgated other motorists, and sideswiped another vehicle. Police said Smith eventually took the Blackstone Avenue/Abby Avenue exit at a high rate of speed before driving off the road and onto a dirt embankment.
That Sounds Terrifying
The video couldn’t be embedded into this article, but you can check it out at this link. The vehicle went down the embankment and then came back up onto the westbound State Route 180 on-ramp before crashing into a guardrail. Despite the extensive front-end damage, police said Smith attempted to continue driving until the vehicle was physically unable to move.
Things took an especially concerning turn once the vehicle finally stopped, as a juvenile sitting in the front passenger seat got out and ran toward a motor officer asking for help. Police said the child had visible injuries to her head, while a second juvenile inside the vehicle complained of pain following the collision.
Officers described Smith as extremely unsteady on her feet with slurred speech and a strong smell of alcohol on her breath. Following a DUI investigation, she was arrested on suspicion of DUI involving drugs and alcohol, reckless driving, hit-and-run, and felony child endangerment before being booked into the Fresno County Jail.
Comments and Reactions to the Fresno DUI Arrest
People reacting to the Fresno Police Department’s post seemed particularly relieved that the situation didn’t end with someone being more seriously hurt. One person wrote, “Thank the Lord, this didn’t end up worse!” before adding that they hoped the mother gets the help she needs and questioning why anyone would think they could outrun a police helicopter.
Others were much less sympathetic, with several people focusing on the photo included with the department’s post and joking about the woman’s expression. One commenter wondered why she appeared to be smiling, while another pointed out that the image appeared to be an identification photo rather than a mug shot.
There were also a couple of references to postpartum depression, though nothing in the Fresno Police Department’s account suggests that played any role in the incident. Another commenter took the conversation in an entirely different direction with a *Ginny & Georgia* joke, writing, “That’s just Georgia protecting Ginny & Austin,” adding some pop-culture humor to an otherwise frightening situation.
Still, the most consequential detail isn’t the photograph or the jokes underneath it, but the two children police say were inside the vehicle throughout the dangerous drive. One of them, ultimately running from the damaged car to an officer asking for help, puts a much more sobering ending on a series of decisions that police say could have ended far worse.