One driver arrested, 4-year-old seriously injured, after multi-vehicle crash

Colonel Michael J. Winquist, Chief of the Cranston Police Department, announced that the Cranston Police Department Traffic Unit is continuing to investigate a motor vehicle crash that seriously injured a four-year-old child and resulted in the driver’s arrest.

On May 31, 2023, just before 8:45 p.m., Officers responded to the Farmington Avenue and Dyer Avenue intersection for a motor vehicle crash with injuries.

One of the occupants was a 4-year-old child who sustained serious, non-life-threatening injuries, including a laceration to his head. The child was transported to Hasbro Children’s Hospital and continues to be hospitalized.

The operator of both vehicles and one other passenger in the second vehicle were transported to Rhode Island Hospital with minor injuries. The driver of the car containing the 4-year-old passenger, identified as 37-year-old Jose Duque Morales of Providence, displayed signs of impairment and was subsequently arrested at the hospital on the charges of Driving While Under the Influence of Liquor/Drugs Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury and Driving While Under the Influence of Intoxicating Liquor/Drugs with a Passenger Under the Age of 13.

Based on a preliminary investigation by the Cranston Police Department Traffic Unit, Morales was operating a convertible Mustang (with the top down) at a high rate of speed east on Farmington Avenue. He failed to stop at the stop sign at the intersection of Dyer Avenue before being struck broadside by a second vehicle (a Chevy Silverado pickup) traveling north on Dyer Avenue that had the legal right of way. The impact caused the Mustang to spin 180 degrees on Farmington Avenue before striking a stockade fence on private property. The four-year-old was in a booster seat in the rear of the vehicle at the time, and it does not appear Morales was wearing a seatbelt. The Silverado pickup spun 180 degrees and came to rest in a driveway of a nearby residence.

Witnesses to the crash provided statements, and video footage obtained from a home is being reviewed as part of the ongoing investigation.