Three Durham Region women are under arrest after going on an alleged drunken car chase through city streets with a 4-year-old boy strapped in the back seat.
And police credit the quick thinking of an Oshawa couple for the safe end to the potentially deadly situation.
The incident started outside an LCBO store at Taunton Road East and Harmony Road North in Oshawa late Monday afternoon.
Police say the three women had been denied service at the store because they were drunk.
After a brief argument outside, one woman walked away and the other two returned to their car, a 2003 Dodge Neon.
A married couple who had watched the events unfold noticed a 4-year-old boy was in the back seat.
The couple contacted police before jumping in their car to follow the women.
According to Sgt. Paul McCurbin, the pair followed the Neon southbound on Harmony Rd. as it swerved in and out of the lanes.
At one point, the driver of the Neon locked brakes and barely avoided slamming into stalled traffic.
The married couple was forced to swerve around the Neon and were then rear-ended by the car they had been following.
Police arrived at the scene and arrested the two women.
The third woman, who had walked away from the LCBO store, was arrested when she returned to the location.
The driver, a 29-year-old Oshawa woman who is not being named to protect the child, is charged with impaired operation of a car, dangerous driving, theft and abandoning a child.
The passenger, a 29-year-old woman from Whitby, faces numerous charges including public intoxication, uttering threats and abandoning a child.
Durham Police said they are considering officially recognizing the couple for their assistance.