Posted on 02/07/2005 7:48:46 AM PST by wmichgrad
SAND LAKE, Mich. (AP) — At least he wasn't speeding
A 4-year-old boy drove his mother's car to a video store a quarter-mile from their apartment in this town about 15 miles north of Grand Rapids.
Unable to reach the accelerator, the boy managed to put the car in gear and make his way to the store about 1:30 a.m. Friday, Sand Lake Police Chief Doug Heugel said. Finding the store closed, the youngster began a slow trip home.
Weaving and with its headlights off, the car got the attention of Officer Jay Osga, who first thought he was following a car that had been left running at a gas pump. He flipped on his lights when the car turned into the apartment complex and struck two parked cars. The boy put the car in reverse and struck Osga's cruiser.
Osga then discovered the boy, whose mother told police her son tried to drive the car earlier after she let him steer the vehicle from her lap.
"He's 4 years old, his mom didn't even know he was up," Heugel told The Grand Rapids Press for a Sunday story. "I don't think he even realizes what he did."
No charges will be filed against the boy or his mother, Heugel said.
It was the third time in six weeks that a west Michigan child was caught driving a vehicle.
A 7-year-old girl sustained minor injuries Dec. 23 after she took a van for a drive and collided with a car near her home in Ottawa County's Robinson Township. The other driver wasn't injured.
On Jan. 13, an 11-year-old Norton Shores boy took a school bus on a two-mile joyride that left smashed mailboxes and broken utility poles in its wake. There were no reported injuries.
Information from: The Grand Rapids Press, http://www.gr-press.com
Lucky! You ever take it off any sweet jumps?
Thats what meanie partents get for not getting the right videos & games !
:-)
Cheers.
I doubt that a "ditzy mom" shoe would, I'm a size 12.
And while I realize that I'm just a bad, bad Dad by not making sure that my daughter is firmly buckled into her booster seat during our half-mile-an-hour trip up the driveway int the garage...
Actually, no I don't.
Quit being such a nancy, Charles.
I think i'm going to run for class prez.
Hon, it's so early to be mean. Try switching to decaf.
There's a big difference between sarcastic and mean.
And please, don't call me hon...
Yes, still sarcasm...
Well, my 2cts. worth.
I have a 5 year old grandson and for Christmas he got a John Deere Gator. He learned in a matter of minutes how to drive forward and stop and backup and turn around.
We decided that this would make driving cars a little more easy with learning to drive these little vehicles. And also, kids are driving these little trucks and motor bikes and other kinds of grown-up toys.
So I don't find this story too inconceivable.
Hey, happy motoring to you and your kids! I'll look forward to reading about you.
Cheers.
When my son was 8 he already knew how to drive and he went to a friend's house after school. He and his friend and his 2 sisters 4 and 6 got on a tractor with no cab and no fenders and drove 3 miles to their other friend's house and then back home. They were very lucky that no-one got hurt. The kids all got spankings and the babysitter got fired.
Her Grandfather also lets her "drive" the tractor on the farm.
I would much rather have her have these little wonderful memories of her childhood, with the connected lessons that we give her on what she can and can't do by herself, that to nanny her through her childhood and follow her around with pillows in case she falls. I am taking every opportunity in her little life to teach her lessons on personal responsibility.
If she were to ever actually go out to my car and drive off and be hurt or killed, my failure will not have been because I "taught" her how to drive, my failure will have been in the fact that I
1) Did not teach her not to do such a thing, or
2) Was not watching her as well as I should have been.
I vaguely remember being a little girl and my dad letting me "drive" on his lap in a nearly empty parking lot.
Many automatics on the road have no brake interlock. I have a now 5 year old who could have done this at 4, no sweat. We kept the keys away from her.
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