Wrong-Way Driver Caught With Toddler In Car: Deputies

RUSKIN, FL — A 31-year-old Ruskin woman faces a number of criminal charges after Hillsborough County deputies say they caught her driving the wrong way with a toddler in her car.

According to the agency, Crystal Lynn Palacios was spotted heading south in the northbound inside lane of 50th Street South by two deputies just after 8 p.m. Monday. The deputies were traveling northbound on 50th street South near Habersham Lane in an unmarked Ford F-250 pickup.

When the deputies saw the car approaching them, “they conducted an evasive maneuver to avoid collision with the small sedan,” an email from the agency said.

The sheriff’s office pickup truck, however, hit a small truck in the outside northbound lane while trying to avoid a head-on collision with the car, the agency noted.

The deputies stopped to check on the other driver. When they discovered the person wasn’t injured, they made a U-turn and caught up with the sedan at the intersection of 50th Street South and Causeway Boulevard, the email said.

Palacios complied with a traffic stop, but deputies quickly noticed “several signs of impairment,” the email said. They also spotted a “small toddler within the vehicle.”

Child protective services was called out to take custody of the toddler and deputies arrested for Palacios for DUI. That DUI was her third in 10 years. She also was charged with driving on a suspended license for the second time and refusal to submit to any DUI test. She has a previous refusal on her record, as well.

The sheriff’s office did not say if the toddler belongs to Palacios, nor did they say how old the child is.

The driver of the truck struck by the deputies left before other officers could arrive on the scene, the sheriff's office said.

Booking photo courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office

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