Toronto, Dec 18, 2023
A 30-year-old Indo-Canadian has been charged in the US state of Florida for driving drunk and crashing his vehicle with his four-month-old daughter inside.
Peeyush Gupta, a resident of Ontario province, was taken into custody last week and remains behind bars in Monroe County’s Key West jail facility.
He faces two felony child neglect charges in addition to a misdemeanor DUI (Driving under the influence) charge, according to Miami-based WPLG news channel.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said it received a call on December 12 for a driver who crashed a red vehicle into a concrete wall on the Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys. However, he continued to drive, “speeding up and slowing down” before stopping at a gas station, the police said.
When he drove away from the gas station, the deputies followed the vehicle, “swerving from side to side” and following other vehicles too closely, leading them to pull over the driver.
According to the arrest report, the deputies saw Gupta’s wife, who was also drunk, and his wailing child inside the vehicle.
Gupta, who smelled of alcohol, told deputies he was coming from Canada, then Miami, then Key West where he downed a pitcher of Budweiser “within five minutes”.
While Gupta was taken into custody after he failed sobriety tests, the wife told the deputies that the baby was crying as she was hungry. The wife added that they were planning on driving from Key West to Miami to get food for the baby.
Deputies wrote in their report that they arrested Gupta on charges of child neglect without great bodily harm based on his impaired driving and not having food for the infant. Authorities said they notified the Florida Department of Children and Families.(Agency)
