Mother arrested after 11 year-old crashes car into a home, officials say

By Lindsay Weber

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    MAGALIA, California (KCRA) — A Northern California mother faces up to 15 years in prison after her 11-year-old daughter crashed a car into a Butte County home, injuring three of the children in the vehicle, according to the district attorney’s office.

Just after midnight on Monday, the California Highway Patrol was called to the crash in the 14000 block of Bridgeport Circle in Magalia for the report of a Jeep crashed into a house.

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said the 11-year-old girl who was driving the car had to be extracted from the vehicle by the fire department and was taken to an area hospital with major injuries. Two 10-year-old girls who were also inside the vehicle were taken to the hospital with a broken nose and contusions to the head. An 11-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy were also inside the vehicle at the time of the crash and were uninjured. They were released at the scene to a guardian.

Officials said 41-year-old Cathryn Kreceman, the driver’s mother, was also inside the vehicle at the time of the crash and was uninjured. She was the only one in the Jeep who was wearing a seatbelt.

Ramsey said Kreceman at first told officers at the scene she was the driver of the Jeep, but later confessed to officers at the hospital that her 11-year-old daughter was driving. She said her father had previously let the girl drive on his ranch.

Kreceman was booked into the Butte County Jail and faces five counts of child endangerment.

She was arraigned on Wednesday, and a judge raised her bail to $350,000. Ramsey said the judge also issued an order for Kreceman to stay away from her daughter and the other children involved in the crash.

Kreceman is set to appear in court again on Aug. 13.

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