A New York mother was arrested after an accident that killed her nine-year-old son while she was driving against the direction of traffic on a freeway while under the influence of drugs, according to state police.
ABC News reports that 32-year-old Kerri Bedrick is accused of driving her SUV the wrong way on the Southern State Parkway in Suffolk County, Long Island, early Thursday morning while her son, Eli D. Henrys, was in the back seat.
A Suffolk County Sheriff’s deputy reportedly saw Bedrick driving in the wrong direction before the accident occurred and attempted to pull her over at around 2:15 a.m. According to Deputy Undersheriff John Becker, the deputy activated his lights and siren, but Bedrick did not stop and instead accelerated.
The deputy arrived at the scene of the four-vehicle crash, removed Bedrick’s strapped-in child from the back seat and attempted life-saving measures, but the child later succumbed to his injuries and died en route to the hospital.
Three others, including Bedrick, were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
“To give you an idea of the severity of the impact, the engine of the wrong-way vehicle was thrown into the woods some distance from the collision site,” Major Stephen Udice of the New York State Police said at a press conference on Thursday.
ABC 7 reported that Bedrick was allegedly under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash and was driving about five miles in the wrong direction on the Southern State Parkway before causing the accident.
According to police, Bedrick admitted to being under the influence of alcohol and taking methamphetamine around 8 p.m. the previous evening. She was also driving without a license at the time of the accident.
The prosecution stated that her driving license had already been revoked 56 times and that she had already been convicted twice for drunk driving.
At Bedrick’s arraignment on Friday, her attorney asked for an extension of her bail so she could attend her son’s funeral. The attorney also cited several medical problems — spina bifida, narcolepsy and a history of domestic violence — as contributing factors to the accident.
According to online court records, Bedrick was charged with various misdemeanors including driving without a license, driving under the influence of drugs, driving under the influence of alcohol, endangering the welfare of a child and illegal possession of a stimulant, according to Fox 5. She was arraigned Friday morning in Central Islip on bail of $1 million cash or $2 million bond.
The case is scheduled to go back to court next week. According to Fox 5, the district attorney wants to upgrade the charge to manslaughter.
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(Cover photo: Eli D. Henrys/Facebook)
