Driver facing charges after drunk driving crash injures his child

Pablo Calderon Lasaro. Photo courtesy of Columbus Police Department.

A Columbus man is being accused of driving drunk, crashing a vehicle and injuring his infant child.

According to Columbus Police Department reports, officers were called to the area of 10th Street and Central Avenue at about 11 p.m. Friday night after witnesses reported a driver fleeing the scene of a crash.

Police found the vehicle a few blocks away and the driver, 20-year-old Pablo A. Calderon Lasaro, was holding his one-year-old child who had been injured in the crash. Officers spoke with Lasaro and say that he was slurring his speech and had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath.

Lasaro failed several field sobriety tests, police say, and was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital to have his blood drawn. After that he was arrested on preliminary charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated with endangerment, child neglect, leaving the scene of an accident and illegal consumption of an alcoholic beverage.

The child was treated for minor injuries at the scene and then released to family members.