A Florida woman was arrested for alleged child neglect this week after her 12-year-old daughter called 911, saying, “My mom won’t wake up and we’re on the I-4 in the car.”
Tiffany Smith, 28, was unconscious behind the wheel of a stopped minivan when deputies arrived at the scene Thursday night, according to a statement from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office in DeLand, Florida.
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“We’re in the grass and we’re close to a ditch,” the girl said in audio released by officials. “I don’t know how to put it in park.”
Two boys, ages 7 and 1, also were in the car, deputies said. The children were unharmed and were turned over to their grandmother, deputies said. Two dogs in the vehicle were taken by animal control officials.
Arriving paramedics revived Smith with naloxone, a nasal spray used to treat opioid overdoses, the sheriff’s office said.
“She told deputies she was on her way to South Carolina with the children when she started to experience back pain,” the sheriff’s statement said. “She said she stopped to take some heroin for the pain.”
Authorities said she lost consciousness, prompting the 12-year-old to call 911.
Smith was stabilized at a hospital and had yet to be booked into jail, the sheriff’s office said Friday. Jail records on Saturday did not list her as an inmate, but they showed she was arrested in 2017 on an allegation of grand theft.
Michelle Acevedo contributed.