BOERNE, Texas – A mother has been arrested and charged with manslaughter after a crash that killed her 4-year-old daughter on Monday.
Kianna Elizabeth Adams, 27, was arrested on Thursday in San Antonio by Texas Department of Public Safety officers and remains in the Bexar County Jail on bonds totaling $225,000.
In addition to the manslaughter charge, Adams was charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and injury to a child — all felony charges.
According to Boerne police, Adams, who is from Foley, Alabama, was driving on Interstate 10 in Boerne near mile marker 539 when she lost control of her SUV and overcorrected, causing the vehicle to roll multiple times.
There were three children in the SUV — an infant, a 2-year-old child, and a 4-year-old child.
Police said none of the children were properly restrained and all three were ejected during the crash.
Starr Adams, 4, died at the scene. The other two children along with Kianna Adams were transported to University Hospital in San Antonio.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, while there were two car seats and a booster seat in the vehicle, none of them were secured to the vehicle with anchors or seatbelts.
Adams initially told officers that she recalled buckling the children into car seats and said all three were in the back seat in those safety seats. A witness who ran to help the family told police that he found the infant buckled in a safety seat outside the vehicle on the side of the road. Two days after the crash, Adams told an investigator that while the kids were buckled into their safety seats, the seats were not anchored to the vehicle, according to the affidavit.
Adams told investigators that her 2004 Chevrolet Tahoe was having some mechanical issues and said while she was traveling at approximately 80 mph, she heard a loud pop and recalled seeing that the check engine light came on. That’s when she drove onto the center median, overcorrected and traveled across the interstate to the grassy shoulder of the road where she lost control and flipped the SUV, the affidavit states.
According to those records, 4-year-old Starr Adams suffered head trauma. The two-year-old child suffered a broken neck and hip. The affidavit states that the injuries were a result of the children not having been properly restrained.
The Boerne Police Department offers free car seat inspections. Residents who are interested in an inspection can call 830-249-8645 to schedule an appointment with an officer who is certified as a child passenger safety technician, officials said.