Sacramento woman with four children found speeding the wrong way on Highway 99, CHP says

A Sacramento woman was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and child endangerment after she was found speeding and heading the wrong way on Highway 99 in a vehicle with four small children in the back seat, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Shortly before 2:30 a.m. Thursday, CHP dispatchers received 911 calls reporting a vehicle moving about 100 mph and heading north in the southbound lanes of Highway 99 from Laguna Boulevard, according to the CHP South Sacramento Area Office.

CHP officers responded to the scene and pulled over the vehicle stopped in the far left lane. Officers removed the 31-year-old driver from the vehicle and placed her in the back seat of a patrol vehicle.

The CHP said one of the officers was driving her vehicle off the freeway, when he was surprised to hear a child’s voice come from the back seat. The officer then realized the woman had been driving with four children in the back seat: a 9-year-old girl and three boys, ages 7, 5, and 4.

None of the children were wearing a seat belt, and there were no child safety seats in the vehicle, according to the CHP.

The woman told officers she did not know she had been driving the wrong way on the freeway, the CHP said. She was arrested, and the officers took the children to their aunt. The CHP did not release the name of the woman arrested. It’s unclear whether she was the children’s mother.

“CHP South Sacramento graveyard units did an incredibly good job, showed selfless bravery, and outstanding decision making,” the CHP said in a Facebook post. “We have no doubt they saved five lives at a minimum, four of them being small children.”