Witnesses Chased After Suspected Drunken Driver, Leading to Her Arrest

HAWTHORNE, CA — Witnesses to a bloody crosswalk crash chased after the guilty SUV and boxed in, resulting in the arrest of the drunken 72-year-old woman at its wheel, Hawthorne police said Sunday.

Donna Marie Higgins is accused of drunkenly running over and nearly killing a 15-month-old baby, and seriously a 15-year-old girl, at a Hawthorne crosswalk and then attempting to drive away.

Witnesses followed the SUV and its incapacitated driver for about one block, then used their own vehicles to box in Higgins' SUV until police arrived, said Hawthorne police Lt. Ti Goetz.

Officers were called at 4:15 p.m. Saturday to the intersection of 133rd Street and Hawthorne Boulevard in response to a "vehicle versus pedestrian" traffic crash. They found the 15-month-old baby still in its stroller -- pulseless and not breathing -- and a 15-year-old girl suffering from leg injuries, Goetz said.

Officers used CPR for the baby before paramedics arrived and rushed the toddler and teenager to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The 15-year-old girl was listed with stable life signs and the baby was in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit, he said.

It was later determined that the 15-year-old girl was pushing the baby stroller inside the crosswalk, where they were struck by an SUV driven by Higgins.

The woman was arrested on suspicion of felony hit and run, and felony drunken driving. She was booked into the Hawthorne jail, where she was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

The northbound lanes of Hawthorne Boulevard were shut down for more than four hours after the crash and a SigAlert was declared by the California Highway Patrol.

— City News Service, photo via Shutterstock