The school van driver who crashed into a utility pole while bringing four siblings to school in September was under the influence of cocaine and Lorazepam, according to police.
Police said Catherine Caron, 52, of Baltic, was driving four brothers and sisters the morning of Sept. 10 when she veered off Quarry Road in Willimantic and collided with a phone pole on the way to Windham Memorial Middle School.
Caron told investigators “she looked down for a minute and when she looked up the airbags were deploying,” according to the warrant for her arrest. Students said she fell asleep at the wheel, and police noticed Caron’s speech was slurred and her pupils were abnormally small.
Investigators searched Caron’s belongings and found a bottle of Lorazepam in her purse, with the label ripped off. Caron became defensive when police asked how she got the pills. She told them, “I don’t know how they got in there,” and said she may have mistakenly taken the bottle from her sister’s house over the weekend, according to the warrant.
Caron said she needs daily medication and thought she had “accidentally taken one of her sister’s pills by mistake,” the warrant says. Drug testing revealed cocaine and Lorazepam in Caron’s system.
The students riding in the van – two boys ages 15 and 17 and girls ages 9 and 13 – were treated at Windham Hospital for abrasions in their necks and abdomens, according to police. Their mother told investigators “she [entrusts] the lives of her children to these drivers to get her children to school and that this accident should have been avoided.”
Caron has been charged with driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance and risk of injury to a minor. She appeared in court Monday and is due back before a judge Dec. 15.
