Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 7, two vehicles collided at the intersection of GA 1 and Bethel Road, causing a passenger to be ejected from the vehicle.

Kearsley Smith was traveling east on Bethel Road when she failed to yield after stopping at a stop sign to enter GA 1. Eddie Harris was traveling north on GA 1 and struck Smith on the passenger side with the front end of his vehicle.

Harris’ vehicle spun clock-wise and came to an uncontrolled final rest on GA 1 facing east.

The impact from the crash caused Smith’s vehicle to exit the roadway onto the east shoulder of GA 1, where the car finally came to a rest.

Due to the speed and impact, Smith’s passenger, a 9-month-old, was fully ejected from the vehicle and found herself under Smith’s car. According to Trooper Andrew Davidson, Carmen, along with sister Kai’lyn, 2, and Unesti Moore, 7, was not buckled into her car seat and the car seat was not buckled into the seat.

“It doesn’t matter the distance, a child needs to ride in a car seat, in the proper type of seat and be buckled up,” Davidson said. “You never know when you could be in an accident. Please do your due diligence.”

The infant was then life flighted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, while Smith and the other passengers were taken by EMS.

Kai’lyn suffered a fracture and was taken to a separate location, but was released, along with everyone else on Sunday.

Smith has since been issued a warrant for her arrest. She has been charged with three counts of cruelty to children in the second degree, for causing physical harm to the children after not buckling them in, and three counts of child restraint law, one count of failure to maintain lane and several others pending.

Davidson is still investigating the cause of why Smith failed to yield, but was told by Harris she was texting and was in a hurry to be somewhere.