Woman faces drug charges after accident
A Canonsburg woman was charged Friday with endangering the welfare of children, reckless endangerment and possession of heroin in connection with an accident last month in which she allegedly crashed her vehicle with her young daughter in the back seat after overdosing on heroin.
Jennifer Marie McCarthy, 31, of 447 Ridge Ave., also is charged with driving under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Police were called Feb. 2 to the rear of 601 W. Pike St. for a report of a vehicle that crashed into a tree. Police were told the woman who was driving the car was having a seizure and that there was an infant in the vehicle.
When police arrived, Canonsburg Ambulance personnel were treating a woman, later identified as McCarthy, who was on the ground next to the vehicle. A paramedic told police it appeared to be an overdose. He and an emergency medical technician were performing CPR and administered Narcan to revive her. Police said McCarthy’s face was blue, and she was not breathing. Officer Matthew Tharp took the 11-month-old girl from bystanders who had been holding her. The child had a small cut on her face, likely caused when a bystander broke one of the windows to get into the vehicle.
Police said McCarthy was revived and became alert. She and her daughter was taken to Canonsburg Hospital for evaluation.
Police said they spotted heroin inside the vehicle and found three used stamp bags on the driver’s side floor, two unused stamp bags of suspected heroin on the floor and a used syringe in the console.
When Tharp spoke to her about the crash, McCarthy reportedly told him she had injected two or three bags of heroin. McCarthy allegedly told the officer she sent a test message to a man she knew who could sell her heroin, then pulled into a nearby lot and met him. After injecting the heroin, McCarthy said she sat there for a minute before driving away. She did not remember anything after that, police said.
According to police, McCarthy told Tharp she had been prescribed pain medication after her daughter was born and later started using heroin.
The charges will be sent by summons from the office of District Judge David Mark. A preliminary hearing is set for April 13 before Mark.