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Driver Speeds Into North Attleboro Yard, Almost Hits Boy In Stroller

NORTH ATTLEBORO (CBS) - At 14-months-old, little Carter is too small to appreciate it, but he's a lucky boy. He and his mom came within inches of being seriously hurt Sunday evening.

Carter was sitting in his stroller around 8:15pm when a drunk driver plowed into his family's front yard, missing him by just feet.

Carter
An accused drunk driver nearly hit Carter in North Attleboro. (Photo credit Jim Armstrong)

His mother, 22-year-old Angela Houle, was standing just steps away, putting the baby's car-seat into a friend's truck so they could go for a ride.

That truck is what ultimately stopped the driver, when he rammed it.

That truck's owner is also the family's upstairs neighbor, Craig Franklin.

"He just accelerated all the way," Franklin explains. "Up the curb, over the grass, next to the baby in the stroller, he came right in and hit my truck."

The impact knocked Houle to the ground.

"I got closed between the doors," she says, "bounced from his truck and then back to the ground. The first thing I said was, 'How's my baby?' That was the first thing that came out of my mouth."

Carter was fine; Houle got some cuts and scratches, and may have also hurt her neck.

After the crash, neighbors and Houle's boyfriend ran for the driver, who police identify as 21-year-old Jesse Coreas. They grabbed his keys and told him to sit on the ground.

"They opened his door, he still had his foot on the gas," Houle explains. "And he still had his hands on the wheel, like he still thought he was driving. He had no shoes on, he was a mess, a mess."

Coreas has pleaded not guilty on all counts, including charges of driving drunk and driving to endanger.

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