'Heart Stopping' Video Shows Accused Drunk Driver's Crash In Cohasset

COHASSET (CBS) – A video that police call "heart stopping" shows an accused drunk driver heading down the wrong side of the road moments before a violent head-on crash in Cohasset.

Laura Farrell, 53, of Scituate, was released on bail Sunday night but failed to appear in Quincy District Court Tuesday. An arrest warrant has been issued.

Police say she was the driver seen in a video swerving over both sides of Route 3A Sunday evening, nearly leaving the road, all while apparently ignoring pleas from a family in another car to pull over.

The video, shot by a 16-year-old, shows Farrell driving her Jeep Grand Cherokee southbound in the northbound lanes when she slammed into a Ford Taurus, police said.

The driver of the Taurus, a 69-year-old woman from Brookline, was seriously hurt and rushed to South Shore Hospital. Her injuries are said to be "non-life threatening."

Christopher Merner shot the cell phone video.

"We did what we really could to bring to her back into the right lane without putting our own lives in danger," Merner said. "My mom was beeping the horn at her trying to get her to pull back in and to get her attention."

A third vehicle was also damaged in the crash when the driver had to swerve out of the way to avoid Farrell.

Farrell's Jeep and the Taurus were totaled in the collision.

"It's a miracle that nobody was killed in this crash. The video is heart stopping to watch," Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said in a statement.

According to Quigley, Farrell "stated that she was coming from a restaurant in Braintree where she had been drinking," and that she failed several field sobriety tests.

Farrell is charged with OUI-liquor, OUI-liquor and serious injury, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and failure to drive in marked lanes.