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Drunk driving crash leaves toddler critically injured

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A two-year-old child is fighting for their life, after being thrown from a car during a bizarre crash Saturday morning. Police say the woman driving admitted to drinking very heavily beforehand.

A children’s toy, glass and debris surrounded what was left of the car, after it rolled over in a strange turn of events.

“It’s a very bizarre accident, the car got high-sided on the wire,” said Albuquerque Police spokesman Ofc. Simon Drobik.

APD says somehow the car hit the utility support wire, flew nearly 15 feet into the air, then came down hard. The child wasn’t buckled in and was thrown from the car.

“It’s just sickening to see something like that, when that child could have been safely placed in a child restraint,” Drobik said.

APD says the driver, 29-year-old Erica Garcia, was highly intoxicated. According to a criminal complaint, Garcia told doctors she drank 30 beers before the crash.

This isn’t the first time Garcia has been in the news. She landed in hot water back in 2013, after leaving her seven month old baby in a hot car, badly hurting the young boy. She admitted to using heroin right before he was left behind. In that case, she pleaded guilty and only served about seven months in jail.

It’s unclear if the child involved in today’s crash is another one of Garcia’s children.

Garcia and the child both remain in the hospital. In addition to the case involving the baby left in a hot car, online court records show Garcia has past stolen car.