SPEED DEMON
Baby dies in car crash after ‘drunk mom races to 121 mph and hits a marquee’
A BABY died after his parents raced more than 100 mph to beat each other home — before his allegedly drunk mom hit a marquee, police said.
Lauren Prescia, 23, and Cameron Hubbard-Jones, 24, were taking part in a “speed contest” in around 7pm on Sunday when their child died, said.
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Hubbard-Jones told police he and Prescia were going to exchange custody of their son, Royce Jones, that night, and he had been talking on the phone to Prescia while driving.
He claimed Prescia “told him she was going to beat him home and began speeding,” .
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The father said that while on the phone with Prescia, “he told her to slow down because she had his son in the car with her.”
Both vehicles approached an intersection, where Hubbard-Jones said he slowed down, but Prescia didn’t.
While trying to change lanes, police said Prescia hit a parked, unoccupied car, and lost control of her vehicle before hitting a marquee sign, “which severed the right half” of her Hyundai.
“The entire right side of the Hyundai from the front passenger door rearward was sheered from the vehicle,” police wrote in the arrest report.
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Royce was still strapped into his car seat after the accident, but sustained severe head trauma and was pronounced dead just after 1am.
Police said Prescia told them at the scene of the crash that she had drank two hard seltzers at 4pm, and that she had slurred speech at the scene.
Investigators said she "had blood-shot eyes and [the officer] could smell that she was emitting a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage from her person.”
They said Prescia couldn’t take a field sobriety test because she was receiving medical treatment.
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Police said Hubbard-Jones initially claimed that he was driving around 60 mph, while Prescia was driving around 80 mph, when the crash happened.
But , police said that based on witness statements and video evidence, Prescia’s Hyundai and Hubbard-Jones’ Mercedez-Benz “were both traveling in excess of 100 mph while trying to pass one another.”
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“The extreme speeds and driving behaviors were indicative of a speed contest between the two parents of the deceased juvenile,” police said.
Investigators executed a search warrant on the vehicle and found the Hyndai was traveling at 119 mph with the throttle at 100 percent five seconds before the crash, and had reached 121 mph while driving.
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Prescia was on charges of felony reckless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol resulting in death, and abuse, neglect, or endangerment of a child.
Hubbard-Jones was arrested for reckless driving involving the death of the juvenile.
Prescia bail was set at $50,000 at a court hearing.
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