Racing Teen who Rolled VW with Infant Inside Charged with Reckless Driving

A 17-year-old Middletown boy who allegedly lost control and flipped his car while racing on East Main Road in Portsmouth Sunday afternoon– with an infant riding along – is facing reckless driving charges.

The baby, along with two other passengers in the VW Golf were transported to Newport Hospital for evaluation, Portsmouth police said.

The driver told police that he thought there was a problem with the brakes so he pulled the e-brake and spun from there, according to a police report.

But a witness told police a different story. She said a silver VW turned from Stub Toe Lane onto East Main Road at a high rate of speed and cut off a brown Mercury.

The two cars then proceeded south on East Main Road erratically at what she estimated to be 60 mph. The VW then “jolted and turned then flipped on its side,” she said.

Another witness said that the two cars passed her while she was driving south on East Main Road and the VW was operating more aggressively than the Mercury before it flipped “high into the air and roll[ed] into a pole.”

The witness stopped to help and noticed a baby was in the car and overheard the involved parties talking about “not pulling the E-brake like last time” and “too soon too fast,” leading her to believe the two cars were racing each other, the police report stated.

Police said the car suffered substantial damage and skid marks at the scene showed that the car had locked its brakes and spun out of control. A look inside the wrecked vehicle showed that the emergency brake was in the upright position.

The car also reportedly struck a fire hydrant, police said.

Based on the evidence at the scene, police arrested the teen for reckless driving.

Police said the boy’s parents were notified that their son was in custody and he reportedly was on probation at the time of the accident.

The matter will be adjudicated in Family Court.