MIAMI COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) An off-duty Indiana State Police trooper arrested a Michigan woman Wednesday for driving nearly twice the speed limit in a posted 60 miles per hour zone on U.S. 31 in Miami County. The woman’s unrestrained one-year-old daughter was in the front seat.
The off duty trooper was driving northbound on U.S. 31 near Miami County Road 1200 when he saw a southbound Nissan passenger car traveling at a high rate of speed. He activated his in-car radar and clocked the Nissan at a 116 miles per hour.
The trooper stopped the car and as he approached it he saw a one-year-old girl sleeping in the front passenger seat. The child was allegedly not restrained in a child safety seat.
The child’s mother, Destanie Maree-Daryell Washington, 24, of Benton Harbor, Michigan was driving with a suspended operator’s license.
Washington was taken to the Miami County Jail to face criminal charges for neglect of a dependent while placing a dependent in a situation that endangers the dependent’s safety and reckless driving at an unreasonable high speed so to endanger the safety of others. She was also issued citations for not having a valid operator’s license and child restraint violation.
The child was released into the care of a family member.
Indiana laws requires all children under the age of eight to be in a child safety or booster seat and the seat be used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
