Police rescue child from SUV that nearly topples over Carrick hillside

An SUV with a child in the back seat nearly flipped over a steep hillside in Carrick on Monday afternoon when the driver and his passenger overdosed on suspected heroin while driving, according to police.

Zone 3 police responded to Nobles Lane for a report of two people overdosing in a vehicle, followed by a report that the SUV had driven off, according to the criminal complaint.

Officers found the Chevy Blazer crashed off the side of Cloverdale Street. The vehicle was leaning precariously toward the hillside adjacent to the road, the complaint said. “The vehicle appeared as if it was going to tip over on the passenger side at any moment,” Officer Gabriel Figueroa wrote.

The driver and the passenger were slumped over, and the driver — later identified as Mark Cuda — was turning blue, according to the complaint. A young child sat crying for help in the right rear seat. Because the Blazer was a two-door, police first had to get the driver and passenger out to get to the child.

To pull the unconscious Cuda from the vehicle, Officer Paul Abel latched a handcuff around the man's left wrist and began pulling him from the car, according to the complaint. Cuda awoke and actively resisted, police wrote, grabbing the steering wheel to pull himself back inside.

“(Abel) conducted two knee strikes to the only target available, which was the left side of (Cuda's) head, to free him from the vehicle,” Figueroa wrote. “I was able to strike (Cuda's) right forearm, finally breaking his grasp.”

Figueroa pulled the passenger, Brandon Wible, from the SUV. Both men were handcuffed and, after paramedics arrived, given Narcan.

Abel climbed into the Blazer's backseat and carried the child, Gigia Cuda, to safety, according to the complaint.

Cuda, 32, is charged with three counts of reckless endangerment, one count of driving under the influence, one count of child endangerment, one count of reckless driving and drug violations. Wible, 34, faces drug charges.

Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-8519, mguza@tribweb.com or via Twitter at @meganguzaTrib.