Woman Sentenced For Labor Day D-U-I Attack In Northeast Philadelphia
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A 52-year-old woman has been sentenced to 15 to 30 months in prison for a D-U-I attack on a block party and water slide in Northeast Philadelphia on Labor day.
Remarkably, no one was injured by the driver who now admits to decades of alcohol abuse and claims not to remember much of the incident.
Prosecutor Mark Gilson says Kathleen Amato, from a nearby neighborhood, turned up on Hagerman street visibly drunk and confrontational. She was sent away, but returned in a minivan and sped down the closed street.
Only the heroic actions of others diverted disaster.
"The older children who were present and the adults who were present who saw what was occurring and had the foresight to see the potential for the catastrophic injuries that could have resulted, they were able to pull the younger children, who were completely clueless to what was going on, out of harm's way," says Gilson. "Children were literally being yanked off the water slide and yanked out of the street within seconds of her slamming into the slide and demolishing it."
Gilson says Amato got another D-U-I while awaiting the outcome of this case.
Amato, now in treatment, expressed remorse in court.
