Milwaukee crash: Mother charged, boy critically injured
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee woman is accused of crashing her car into a bus on the city's north side April 29 – critically injuring her 2-year-old son.
Shannon Sutters, 23, is charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety and knowingly operating a motor vehicle without a valid license (cause great bodily harm).
According to a criminal complaint, a Milwaukee County Transit System bus and a car crashed near Sherman and Burleigh on April 29. The bus driver told police that the car's driver and a "small child" got out of the car after the crash, got into another car and were driven away.
While police were at the scene, they learned a woman and child had just walked into a hospital roughly a half-mile away and said they were in a crash with a bus. There, officers spoke to Sutters. She admitted, per the complaint, that she was driving the car that had been abandoned at the crash scene. She further said she had her 2-year-old son with her.
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The boy suffered serious injuries and, as of May 3, the complaint states he remained in critical condition.
Sutters later told police in a Mirandized interview, the complaint states, that her son was not in a car seat or booster seat but was buckled. She said, though, that she knew he could unbuckle himself. Sutters said her car was experiencing difficulties before the crash – the speedometer, gas tank meter and odometer went out, and the engine wasn't "catching." She said she was driving like that for around two minutes, and planned to pull over after she got through the intersection where she hit the bus. She said she did not see the bus coming and tried to swerve, but hit it anyway. The boy had unbuckled himself and was "crawling in between the front driver's seat and front passenger seat," she said, at the time of the crash.
Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS)
The bus driver was also taken to a hospital after the crash. The complaint states he said he had a green light and proceeded through the intersection when he was "suddenly" hit by the car – he "didn't even see it coming." There was one passenger on the bus who "appeared OK."
A pole camera from the area showed the bus was headed east on Burleigh and had the green light when Sutters' car, headed south on Sherman, ran a red light and almost hit a pedestrian before crashing into the bus. Video from onboard the bus also showed the car run the red light, almost hitting the pedestrian, before hitting the bus. It also showed the boy in the front seat at the time of the crash.
Officers noted all three seatbelts in the backseat of Sutters' car were fastened, and there was not a child seat of any kind inside. The complaint states Sutters also admitted she did not have a valid driver's license and only had a permit in 2018.