Investigators are "almost certain" that the infant's mother was driving under the influence of alcohol on Monday in a road accident that seriously injured her 18-month-old daughter.

An 18-month-old infant is between life and death following a road accident Monday in the Pas-de-Calais. The parents had fled and were still wanted Wednesday, AFP learned from a judicial source.

The child in a desperate state

The 34-year-old mother was driving the car, with her companion and three children on board, who entered the underpass of a railway bridge on Monday night around 8 pm at Samer. Their 18-month-old daughter was heliported at Lille University Hospital, where she is in a desperate state, the prosecutor of Boulogne-sur-Mer told AFP. The parents in shock and their two children aged three and four were admitted to the hospital in Boulogne, which the couple left hurriedly in the night from Monday to Tuesday.

The results of the blood tests are not yet known, but the prosecutor's office is "almost certain" that they will prove positive to alcohol. According to the same source, the mother was sentenced in 2011 for armed robbery and was sentenced for narcotics use. In the regional newspaper La Voix du Nord , the mother of the driver urged the couple, originally from Carly, to surrender.