A woman is facing a slew of charges, including drunken driving and driving on a suspended license, in a crash that sent a boy getting off a bus in Haverhill, Massachusetts, to the hospital on Thursday.
A judge ordered Tiffany Zembower be held on $25,000 bail at her arraignment in Haverhill District Court Friday. A not guilty plea was entered on her behalf.
The injured child, 9 years old, remained at Boston Children's Hospital Friday in critical but stable condition, prosecutors said at the hearing. They said witnesses described the child being thrown at least six feet in the air.
Haverhill police said Thursday that the boy was airlifted to a Boston-area hospital after he was hit by a Toyota Tacoma about 5:30 p.m. at the intersection of Main Street and 13th Avenue. The driver stopped at the scene; police didn't share an update on the boy's condition Thursday.
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Stephanie Bonilla, the boy's sister, said her brother was on his way home from an afterschool program when he was hit.
"I looked over and I seen the little kid on the floor and I seen them, giving him CPR and I didn’t know it was him until I seen them lift him up on the stretcher," she told NBC10 Boston. "I ran over and I tried to get in the ambulance with him but they wouldn’t let me."
Stephanie said she was feeling "OK" and trying to be stronger for her little sister and her brother.
"I know he wouldn’t want me to cry," she said.
In a letter to families and staff, Haverhill Public Schools said the student attends Pentucket Lake Elementary School and suffered serious injuries.
"Please join us in keeping our student and the family in your thoughts and prayers," the district said in the letter.
Zembower has previously faced another OUI charge, prosecutors said. She is also charged with failing to stop for a school bus and possessing an open container in a vehicle.
Footage from inside the school bus showed its driver honking the horn to warn the pickup truck's driver, prosecutors said, and five nips-sized alcohol bottles were found inside the vehicle.
Among the conditions of Zembower's release are that she not drive and not drink — the condition to be enforced through remote breath alcohol monitoring. She's due back for another court hearing Feb. 2.
