Car Hits Woman, Just Misses Kids Victim Treated, Released; Drunken Driving Suspected In Accident

When the car slammed into Lana Shollenberger in her front yard Sunday afternoon, she worried most about her 4-year-old daughter, Rachel, playing just feet away.

The car, driven by a suspected drunken driver, smashed through two cars and a chain-link fence. It landed in the front yard of a triplex in the 800 block of West Mansfield about 4 p.m. Sunday.

The car missed Rachel and her playmate Connor Mize, 2, by several feet. The fence raked Connor’s mother, Tami Mize. The car and the fence knocked Shollenberger to the ground.

“I was yelling, ‘Where’s my daughter? The little girl, with the brown hair and the glasses?”’ Shollenberger said. “I was yelling. Finally, I heard Rachel’s voice.”

Shollenberger was treated for bruises and scrapes at Sacred Heart Medical Center and released.

She came home from the hospital, about an hour and a half after the accident, and walked next door to see Mize. She still was shaken.

“It’s like a blur,” Shollenberger told Mize. “Where was I? Was I right next to you?”

When Connor saw Rachel, he walked over and hugged her. “I’m OK,” Rachel said in a serious voice. “I’m OK, my mom’s OK.”

“Come on,” he said, grabbing Rachel by the hand and taking her into his play room.

“We are so lucky,” Shollenberger said. “The kids are so lucky.”

After the accident, Cynthia M. McCauley, 25, of 734 W. Knox, was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. She was taken to Spokane County Jail Sunday and was released that evening.

McCauley, who lives about a block from the accident, drove south on Lincoln and turned east on Mansfield, police said. She then drove into the two cars, dragging them partly into the yard, police said.

Neighbor Terry Barr was working on his rock wall across the street. “It was like she was herding cattle, chasing that woman across the yard,” Barr said. “I thought she was going to kill that lady and kid.”

The car came to a rest next to the triplex, leaving tire tracks on the lawn, ripped-up bushes and black scrape marks on the front of the white building.

The chain-link fence was kinked and crumpled.

Landlords Jane and John Nord tried to put the fence posts back in place.

“Just making it so it’s not a hazard,” John Nord said.

The resident of the front apartment said he was in the back of his unit when the car scraped up against the home.

“The only thing that kept that car from going in my living room was that bush,” said the man, who didn’t want his name used.

“I’m glad that my car wasn’t in front.”

Mize’s was. Her Mitsubishi probably was totaled.

She wasn’t that concerned about her car, however. She was worried about the children.

“You think you’re safe in a fenced yard, playing with your kids,” Mize said.

In the early evening Sunday, Connor ran around the living room, hugging the legs of his mother and a police officer.

Rachel stayed in the back room and played with toys.

“I was so thankful she wasn’t hurt,” said Shollenberger, tears in her eyes.

“What a relief, when I heard her cry.”

, DataTimes