A North St. Paul man was charged Monday with driving into a woman and her 3-year-old son in St. Paul, leaving both with life-threatening injuries.

Jordan S. Yaritz, 23, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of criminal vehicular operation for the Dec. 18 collision.

The 38-year-old woman and her son were thrown into the air by the force of the impact, and were unconscious when officers arrived. The complaint did not detail the extent of their injuries.

"The defendant's vehicle passed the stopped traffic at a speed that appeared to be in excess of the posted speed," the charges said. "The defendant's brake lights did not come on until after he struck the pedestrians."

A bus driver who witnessed the incident told police that she was traveling west on Maryland Avenue approaching Albermarle Street when she stopped to allow the woman and the child to cross from the south side to the north side of Maryland.

The bus driver told police that the two were in the crosswalk when Yaritz's vehicle passed the bus and hit the two just before they reached the other side of Maryland at Albermarle.

"She said that the defendant's vehicle was 'going fast,' " the police complaint said.

Police found Yaritz on the scene, and noted that his eyes were "glazed and his speech was slow," the complaint said. He told police he is diabetic, but a medic's check of his blood sugar found nothing unusual.

Needles, an empty bottle of Oxycodone and a letter for methadone treatment were found in Yaritz's vehicle, the charges said. He told police he had taken Ambien and Lorazepam at about midnight.

Toxicology tests are pending.

Court records show that Yaritz was cited in Washington County on Dec. 4 for driving 88 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone, and he pleaded guilty in Ramsey County on Dec. 10 to charges of failing to drive with due care in a hit-and-run crash from earlier in the year.

Chao Xiong