Angela Arrigo appeared in court over a crash outside a daycare center that left a mother and her child hurt, News 12 reported. The court appearance brought renewed attention to an incident that authorities have described as a drunk driving crash, one that unfolded just outside the doors of a place where young children are dropped off and cared for each day.
According to police, the crash happened back in February outside Bloom Academy. Investigators say Arrigo was drunk while she was driving at the time, turning an ordinary stretch of road in front of the daycare into the scene of a violent collision that would later form the basis of the criminal case now moving through the courts.
Video of the incident captured just how sudden and frightening the moment was. In the footage, a gray SUV is seen slamming into a woman and her two boys who were near the daycare. The vehicle struck them with enough force that the impact was plainly visible on camera, underscoring the danger the family faced in those few seconds.
The mother and her boys were knocked to the ground by the crash, according to the account. As they lay on the pavement, staffers from the daycare rushed out of the front door to help, hurrying to reach the family in the immediate aftermath of the collision and to assist them until further help could arrive at the scene.
Despite the severity of the crash, the outcome was not fatal. The little boy and the mother survived the collision, though News 12 reported that they were hurt in the incident. Their survival offered a measure of relief in a case that could easily have ended in tragedy given the way the SUV bore down on them outside the daycare.
Accounts of the crash describe how the vehicle jumped the curb outside Bloom Academy as the mother and her children tried to jump out of the way. That detail captured the desperation of the moment, with the family attempting to escape the path of the oncoming SUV before it reached the spot where they were standing near the building.
Arrigo is now facing charges of assault by auto and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the crash. With her appearance in court, the case enters its next phase, as the justice system weighs the allegations that a drunk driver struck a mother and her children directly outside a daycare in February.