A St. Paul woman was charged Friday in the March hit-and-run crash that put another woman in a coma.

Danielle D. Sivels, 30, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with three counts of criminal vehicular operation for the crash in St. Paul that injured Sophia Bouwens.

According to the complaint: About 7:30 p.m. on March 16, police responded to a hit-and-run crash at 6th Street E. and Cypress Street. They found an unoccupied Dodge Charger and a Saturn with Bouwens, 26, in the driver's seat. She was unconscious with her head resting on the steering wheel, her leg pinned by the driver's door.

Bouwens suffered a severe concussion, a small facture at the base of her skull, light bleeding on the brain, a broken leg, a broken jaw and frontal brain damage. Her top and bottom teeth were also knocked out, and her jaw was wired shut for several weeks.

Bouwens now walks with a limp, experiences short-term memory problems and has trouble with her eyesight.

At the crash scene, police spoke with a witness who provided a description of the Charger's driver. They also interviewed the vehicle's owner, who said she co-owned it with her daughter, Sivels.

Police spoke to Sivels at her home and took her in for questioning. She was bruised and smelled strongly of alcohol, the charges said.

Sivels, who was treated for a broken ankle, initially denied involvement, but later admitted to the crash, the complaint said.

Information recovered from the Charger showed that it allegedly accelerated from 37 to 57 miles per hour in the five seconds preceding the crash.

A blood sample from the crash scene showed that Sivels' blood alcohol content was .081 percent, the charges said.

Surveillance video from a neighbor showed that the Charger traveled southbound on Cypress through a stop sign while Bouwens' car, which had no stop sign, traveled east on 6th Street.

Sivels has two drunken driving convictions in Hennepin County.

Chao Xiong • 612-270-4708

Twitter: @ChaoStrib