Driver Took Vehicle Airborne With Kids In Car: Report

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI — A reckless driver has been arrested and faces charges after police say he drove a woman and children recklessly, at one point taking the car they were traveling in airborne moments before a serious crash.

Mount Pleasant police were called to the area of Highway 11 and Oakes Road just after 4 p.m. Wednesday on a report of a fight between a man and a woman that was happening inside a vehicle.

According to police reports, a woman inside the car called police, saying that Joseph Balderas was driving recklessly with children in the car.

Police said that Balderas had been driving more than 70 miles per hour in the area. When he came upon backed up traffic just past Cozy Acres Road, he veered to the right to avoid a collision with slowing traffic. His vehicle left the roadway and went down into a ditch, striking a bus stop sign, then hitting and damaging a culvert and finally jumping a driveway in the 6600 block of Durand Ave. The vehicle then came to a stop in the ditch with Balderas exiting the vehicle and running from the scene.

Sturtevant police with their K9 officer were the first ones on the scene of the accident and later assisted with tracking Balderas in the woods North of Stuart McBride Park and at the end of Cozy Acres. Mount Pleasant Officers with the Assistance of Sturtevant PD ultimately found Balderas hiding in those woods.

The passengers in the vehicle were treated by the South Shore Fire Department. The adult passenger had an injury to the right arm and wrist area and decided to be driven to the hospital by a family member, police said.