MILTON, Ga. — A Cumming woman faces charges she was driving while on drugs when she narrowly missed hitting a group of children at a Milton park.
On dashcam video obtained by Channel 2's Mike Petchenik, 54-year-old Sylvia Cox appears in a daze when questioned by officers.
"What you looking at?" an officer can be heard asking her.
"The birds," Cox replied.
Moments earlier, John McLaughlin, head of the North Metro Miracle League, an organization that provides athletic support for children with disabilities, was in the middle of a coach's meeting, when he told Petchenik he saw Cox drive up onto the sidewalk near the playing fields.
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“This white Ford Focus just, like it was in slow motion, drove right through them,” he said.
McLaughlin said he approached Cox in an effort to stop her.
“I said, ‘Stop, what are you doing?’” he told Petchenik. “She said: ‘I’m taking in the beauty.’”
Former Atlanta Falcon and Miracle League board member
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Mike Haynes
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told Petchenik kids were just inches from Cox’s car. %
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“Some of the parents got the kids out of the way, which was good,” he said. “That could have been a tragic incident.”
McLaughlin said Cox eventually drove off the sidewalk and plowed into another car before coming to a stop.
“How come you rode down a sidewalk with a bunch of kids?” the officer asked Cox. “Do you remember doing that?”
“I don’t remember doing that,” she replied.
Alpharetta Department of Public Safety spokesman George Gordon told Petchenik the officer determined Cox was under the influence of some kind of substance other than alcohol. Gordon said police took a blood test and are awaiting the results.
“It could have been much worse,” he said.
Petchenik reached out to Cox at a phone number and e-mail address he found for her Thursday, but he hasn’t heard back yet.