A New York mother was taken into custody following a collision that killed her 9-year-old son, while she was on drugs and driving against traffic on a highway, according to state police.
ABC News reports that Kerri Bedrick, 32, is accused of driving her SUV the wrong way on the Southern State Parkway in Suffolk County, Long Island, early Thursday morning with her son, Eli D. Henrys, in the back seat.
A Suffolk County Sheriff’s deputy reportedly saw Bedrick going the wrong way before the crash occurred and attempted to pull her over around 2:15 a.m. The deputy activated lights and sirens, but Bedrick did not stop and instead sped up, according to Deputy Undersheriff John Becker.
The deputy arrived at the four-vehicle crash site, removed Bedrick’s seat-belted child from the back seat, and attempted life-saving measures, but the child later succumbed to his injuries and died on the way to the hospital.
Three others, including Bedrick, were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“To give you an idea of the severity of the impact, the engine of the wrong-way-driving vehicle was thrown from that vehicle into the woods some distance from the collision point itself,” New York State Police Major Stephen Udice said Thursday at a press briefing.
ABC 7 reports that Bedrick was allegedly high on drugs at the time of the accident and drove the wrong way on Southern State Parkway for approximately five miles before causing the crash.
Bedrick admitted to being under the influence of alcohol and taking methamphetamine around 8 p.m. the night before, according to police. She was also driving without a license at the time of the accident.
Prosecutors indicated that her driver’s license had been suspended 56 times previously, and she had two prior DWIs.
At Bedrick’s arraignment on Friday, her attorney requested leniency with her bail so she could attend her son’s funeral. The attorney also cited several medical issues—spina bifida, narcolepsy, and a history of domestic violence—as factors contributing to the accident.
According to online court records, Fox 5 reports that Bedrick has been charged with various offenses, including aggravated unlicensed operation, operating a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs, aggravated DWI, endangering the welfare of a child, and criminal possession of a stimulant. She was arraigned Friday morning on $1 million cash or $2 million bond in Central Islip.
The case is scheduled to return to court next week, with the District Attorney seeking to elevate the charges to homicide, according to Fox 5.
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[Feature Photo: Eli D. Henrys/Facebook]
