A Chicago woman is facing charges after she admitted speeding just before slamming into a tree near Cedar Lake. Her kids weren’t wearing seat belts.
Maria Melchor, 42, was charged Thursday with five counts of neglect and three counts of misdemeanor reckless driving.
She hasn’t been apprehended and is ordered held on a $6,000 cash bond.
She, a man and two kids were taken to the hospital. Melchor and her daughter, 10, had the most serious injuries.
Police responded around 12 p.m. Sept 23, 2023 to the 14000 block of State Line Road, just inside the Indiana state line.
Melchor was extracted from the Chevrolet express van along with her 10-year-old daughter.
She told officers at the scene that she had turned around to argue with one of her kids in the back seat about her speeding. The van went off the road and hit the tree head-on.
Crash investigators estimated the van was going 58 miles per hour — in a 30 mph zone — just before impact.
Melchor was transferred to a Chicago hospital for surgery for a left ankle fracture and a femur fracture. She needed a splint in her leg, records show.
The girl, 10, needed 12 staples in her head, had a skull fracture, a thigh laceration, a lung contusion and hairline rib fractures.