Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Tuesday, July 30, 2013
(DOANS) - A Bloomfield woman is facing criminal charges after she attempted to flee from police and crashed her truck with her three small children inside.
While Indiana State Trooper Eric Nash was monitoring Sunday morning traffic on State Road 58 just south of Bloomfield when a 1991 Chevrolet pickup truck raced by him.
Nash clocked the vehicle doing 88 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hours zone.
While Nash was attempting to catch up to the vehicle he noticed a large dust cloud, smoke and debris along the roadway.
The truck had hit an embankment and crashed into a private garden area near County Road 500 East.
Nash rushed to the crash site and found 27-year-old Jessica Ann Purtlebaugh, of Bloomfield and three children crying inside the truck.
Purtlebaugh told Trooper Nash that she was attempting to flee from him when she lost control of the truck and crashed.
The children were sharing two seatbelts because Purtlebaugh said there was not enough room for car seats or booster seats in the cab of the truck.
Trooper Nash administered first aid to the children who suffered severe lacerations, contusions, swelling and bruising and the impact knocked out their teeth.
Purtlebaugh also suffered contusions.
Purtlebaugh pleaded guilty to charges of child neglect in 2010 and was sentenced to a year and a half in prison after crashing her car with two young children in it.
According to court documents, Purtlebaugh's blood alcohol content was .35 at the time of the 2010 crash.
Charges are pending in Sunday's incident.
According to Indiana Law all passengers in motor vehicles must be properly restrained by a seat belt and children under the age of eight must be in the proper child restraint system. Seat belt sharing is a violation of the Indiana Code.
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