Woman charged with DUI in accident that hurt baby

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A 20-year-old woman has been charged with driving under the influence after she ran off the road and flipped a vehicle in Paulding County, injuring a baby.

Kirsten Mazzola, of Dallas, was traveling southbound on Ga. Highway 92 when she apparently swerved into the opposite lane and left the roadway, flipping the Ford Escape, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

Mazzola told a witness at the scene Wednesday evening she was trying to avoid hitting a dog in the road.

Mazzola and another adult, 25-year-old Michael Anderson, were able to climb out through the sunroof, but the child appeared to have hurt his head, according to Leigh Anne Bleichner, who passed the incident on Highway 92, just west of U.S. Highway 41 near the Cobb County line.

"I saw a mommy with her baby, freaking out," witness Leigh Anne Bleichner told the AJC. "I got out of my car and ran at her."

The child, Michael Anderson, Jr., who Bleichner said appeared to be less than a year old, was bleeding from his head, she said.

"I couldn't even tell which way the car was supposed to be facing," Bleichner said.

The child was taken by helicopter to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egelston, where he was treated and released. Mazzola and Anderson were treated at the scene, according to Gordy Wright with the Georgia State Patrol.

Mazzola was charged with DUI, failing to maintain lane, and child endangerment, Wright said. Anderson was charged with allowing another to violate state law, he said.