A Jacksonville mother was arrested for a DUI on Interstate 10 earlier this month after a sheriff’s deputy clocked her car at 120 mph. After she was taken into custody, the authorities noticed her three-year-old child was also strapped into the backseat. The reason she said she was driving that fast, police say, made the case exceedingly worse.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office a lit marijuana joint and several empty bottles of alcohol were found in the vehicle. The responding officer reported a strong smell of marijuana came from the car and a separate smell of alcohol coming from the driver. But she claimed she had good cause for speeding.
The reason she gave for her reckless driving, investigators say, was she was rushing home to her 10-year-old. She had apparently left the child alone while out and about. She did not account for the marijuana or alcohol.
She faces charges under a Florida traffic-safety statute that didn’t exist a year ago. It’s designed for exactly the kind of speed she was traveling. She’s now being referred to as a “super speeder”.
What Happened on I-10
According to the JSO arrest report obtained by News4JAX, a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officer spotted the mother’s vehicle weaving in and out of traffic on Interstate 10 westbound, just before Chaffee Road, on the night of May 6, 2026, just before 10 p.m. The car flew past the officer’s vehicle at 120 mph, prompting him to pull her over.
The 29-year-old mother’s three-year-old was in the backseat, the JSO said. The officer reported a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car and a strong odor of alcohol coming from the mother as he spoke with her. He called for help from DUI Officer Ernesto Valerio. Valerio conducted a DUI investigation and determined the woman was indeed driving under the influence.
The Charges and End Result
A search of the vehicle, the sheriff’s office said, turned up a lit marijuana joint and multiple empty bottles of alcohol. In body-camera footage posted by JSO, Valerio asked the mother whether she thought that was a safe way to drive with her child in the car.
The mother was arrested for DUI and for violating Florida’s Super Speeder law, the sheriff’s office said. The law, enacted in Florida in 2025, makes it a crime to drive at speeds of more than 100 mph. The case was publicly released on JSO’s social media on May 25, nearly three weeks after the May 6 stop.