Woman flees after crashing into wall, leaving 2 kids inside and injured adult behind

A woman was arrested Friday after police said she crashed a Nissan Altima through a central Las Vegas Valley wall and ran off, leaving her 2-year-old son and 11-month-old nephew behind with an injured adult passenger.

It happened shortly before noon in the front yard of a house at the corner of Upland Boulevard and Alta Drive.

Nevada Highway Patrol troopers initially tried to pull the woman over around Alta and Decatur Boulevard after they said she was talking on her cell phone without a headset, spokesman Loy Hixson said. But she didn't stop.

Troopers said they did not want to chase her through a residential neighborhood on Nevada Day, when kids out of school and could have been out playing.

Shortly after, troopers received calls saying a car had hit a wall about half a mile away, at the intersection of Alta and Upland Drive, Hixson said.

When the highway patrol got there, Hixson said, they saw it was the same Altima they had tried to pull over.

The woman was gone, NHP said, but the children and injured adult were in the car.

The adult and the 2-year-old were taken to University Medical Center with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, Hixson said. It's not clear how or if the adult was related to anyone in the car.

Hixson said there were no child safety seats in the car.

Robert Carrasco, who lives next door to the house where the Altima crashed, said he had just pulled into his driveway when he heard the the car speeding up Alta, then collide with a neighbor's wall.

"It was like a bomb," Carrasco said.

The neighbor, who Carrasco had waived at just seconds before, had been outside working on his car when the car crashed, Carrasco said. Impact sent dozens of bricks flying, and the neighbor was hit in the head.

Hixson said the man's injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Immediately after the crash, Carrasco said, he saw a woman get out of the car and "just start running" north on Upland.

Carrasco said he called 911 right away.

Las Vegas police, who assisted troopers on the incident, later caught a woman they said was the driver a few hundred yards from the crash. She has not been identified.

A Metro officer who responded was holding the woman's nephew just a few hundred yards from where his mother was being taken into custody, Hixson said.

The Clark County Department of Family Services will take custody of both children, Hixson said.

The driver will likely face several felony charges, Hixson said.

Contact reporter Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Find him on Twitter: @ColtonLochhead