3-year-old injured in suspected DUI crash after family argument

HOLLISTER, Calif. (KION) A woman is facing several charges when she is discharged from the hospital because Hollister police said she was the driver in a DUI crash that injured her 3-year-old son.

At around 9:15 p.m. Sunday, officers responded to a report of a woman with a knife who was involved in a fight with family members at a home on the 2400 block of Fairhaven Court.

When the first officer got there, police said dispatch told him the suspect was trying to leave with her 3-year-old son in the car. The officer tried to block the vehicle's path with his patrol car, but said the woman got around it and sped north on Valley View Road.

The officer said he tried to catch up to the vehicle, but the driver crashed into a parked truck in the 2200 block of Valley View Road. Police said the force of the impact pushed a full-sized truck into another truck parked behind it. All three vehicles had major damage.

When officers got to the vehicle, they said the child was on the floorboard of the passenger seat. They said it appeared that he had been put in the passenger seat without restraints, even though there was a child seat in the back of the car.

The child was conscious and looked like he had a leg injury, according to police, and the driver, identified as 22-year-old Natalia Gartman, had major injuries from the airbag deployment and not using a seatbelt.

The child was treated at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital and released to his grandmother.

Gartman was taken to a trauma center for treatment. Police are referring charges that include brandishing a knife, DUI, evading police and felony child endangerment.