Woman charged with DUI after child dragged from car

Police say a 36-year-old Woodbridge woman pulled away from the Montclair Country Club dragging her 6-year-old child five or six feet Tuesday night as the child was trying to get in the car.

Cindy Oatman, of 2025 Hampton Lane, is charged with felony child endangerment, hit and run and driving under the influence, said Detective Dennis Mangan, Prince William police spokesman.

Oatman was talking on her cell phone and began pulling away, police said. The child suffered minor scrapes and cuts.

Four children, ages 6, 7, 8, and 9 years old, were in the car, Mangan said. Two of them were Oatman’s, although police were unsure which child, other than the 6-year-old, was hers. Police did not identify the sex of the injured child.

Oatman was arrested when the Prince William police street crimes unit, in the area of Spriggs and Minnieville Road at an unspecified time, saw a black Chevrolet Tahoe driving erratically and crossing over the double yellow lines.

Officers said they noticed that the driver was drunk when they walked up to her window after she stopped at the Montclair Shopping Center, Mangan said.

Around the same time, a witness in Montclair called police and described a vehicle like Oatman’s, saying it drove over a highway sign, forcing it onto the windshield. Damage is estimated at $1,000.

Police later discovered the incident began at the Montclair Country Club, Mangan said.

Oatman is being held at the Prince William-Manassas regional jail without bond.