A New Jersey mom suspected of driving while under the influence of alcohol was arrested after she crashed her car with her three kids inside. According to the New York Post, Megan Fackler crashed into a truck in Ewing Township, New Jersey in October 2024. When police arrived at the scene of the crash, they found three open bottles of wine in the car, as well as Fackler’s three kids, who were 4, 7, and 8 years old.
In bodycam footage of the New Jersey mom allegedly caught drunk in her car, Fackler asks the officers to “please” not arrest her. The footage also shows the mom of three taking a sobriety test and claiming that she has “no balance” because of issues involving a divorce. She was arrested on the scene, and the bodycam footage is more than an hour long.
Police say the mom was driving drunk with her three kids in the car.
The New York Post also reported that, according to officers, Fackler blew a 0.371% during her breathalyzer test, which is five times the legal limit in New Jersey. Fackler claims in the video that the wine bottles found in her car are old and that she isn’t driving under the influence of alcohol. However, she was given multiple citations, including reckless driving. She faces three counts of endangering a child because her three children were in the car at the time of the collision.
According to the Division of Highway Traffic Safety in New Jersey, if someone operates a motor vehicle and they are found to have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or higher, they are considered guilty of drunk driving. Fackler’s BAC test read well above what is considered the legal limit for anyone driving in the state of New Jersey.
Thankfully, no one was hurt in the crash.
Fackler’s kids were unharmed in the crash, as was Fackler. In the bodycam footage, when an officer asks Fackler why she won’t perform a sobriety test, she slurs her words and says it is her “God-given issue” to not participate. After her words trail off, the officer says, “I don’t know what that means” in response to Fackler’s slurred rambling.
Then, when Fackler begins to perform a sobriety test, complete with attempting to walk a straight line, she almost immediately fails. When the officer moves to officially place Fackler under arrest, she at first protests and says that he didn’t give her the opportunity to perform the test on camera, though the bodycam footage proves otherwise.
In the bodycam clip, Fackler also claims to work for the Department of Transportation in New Jersey. She claims that, as a result, she “knows how this works” in relation to being pulled over after a collision.
According to LinkedIn, Fackler was the director of Statewide Planning as of June 2024. At the time, the New Jersey Department of Transportation shared a post on LinkedIn applauding Fackler for a keynote speech about “transit friendly neighborhoods.” It’s unclear if Fackler still works for the department, or if she did at the time of her arrest.
