A Louisiana mother was charged after crashing her SUV containing her 11 children. The mother is facing child cruelty charges after the accident.
After being thrown from the vehicle, one of the youngsters had to be flown by air ambulance to a hospital. There, the mother, Leticia Brothers, was given a police summons following the accident.
The driver and all of her children, aged 4 to 16, were hurt during the accident on Sullivan Road near Huntley Avenue, Baton Rouge, just before 10 p.m. on Sunday. All are expected to survive.
Arriving at the scene, police described the shock at what they saw. Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran told WBRZ: “It’s a terrible accident. I mean, a vehicle flipped over, and you have children laying everywhere. It’s a terrible thing to pull up on.”
When his crews arrived, Assistant Fire Chief Derek Glover of the Central Fire Department added that “They found multiple patients�more patients than firefighters we had on the scene.” Officers were forced to call for two more fire engines and more paramedic units.
Police believe that none of the children were buckled up. According to police, Brothers was driving without insurance and under a suspended license. The mother was arrested on several charges, including 11 counts of cruelty to juveniles and careless operation.
Corcoran told local newspaper The Advocate: “We’re lucky there wasn’t a fatality of a child…Two of the children were sitting in front, one was in the passenger seat behind the driver, four were in the next seat, and four were in the hatchback, which didn’t have a window, just plastic.”
WBRZ filmed the scene after the crash. Footage showed the crumpled white SUV on its side, with its windshield smashed. Debris litters the surrounding area, including broken rearview mirrors and a child’s single sandal.
“The vehicle didn’t even have a back glass in it; it just had a plastic bag over that back window,” Corcoran said. “And after the wreck, that’s how they escaped from the vehicle, through knocking that plastic bag out and trying to climb out.”
According to reports, Brothers has been previously arrested for cruelty to juveniles.
She was charged with cruelty to juveniles, domestic abuse, criminal neglect of family, and encouragement of child delinquency, back in 2015. Her then nine children were all sleeping together on the floor in one room, the arrest report stated. There were no beds in the house.
At the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison in 2016, she was jailed and released that same year.
Brothers face 11 counts of cruelty to a juvenile, 11 counts of a child not restrained, careless operation, and no car insurance. Brothers had no driver’s license, Corcoran said, so she also faces a count of “suspended Class P driver’s license.”
