Speeding driver on wrong side of road was 11year-old boy, Canada police say
When police in Canada responded to reports of a car travelling at 150km per hour (93mph) on the wrong side of the road, they initially believed they had intercepted a drunk driver.
So officers were surprised to discover that the driver was in fact an 11year-old boy.
On Sunday evening, the Durham regional police service received an emergency call about a possible drunk driver leaving a gas station in the city of Whitby, nearly an hour north-east of Toronto.
As police headed to the vehicle’s registered address, a car sped by, well in excess of posted speed limits.
“The officer activated their emergency equipment and made a U-turn to attempt to stop the vehicle,” Durham police said Monday. “A pursuit was initiated.”
Officers chased the Hyundai along city streets and the car soon lost control, smashing through a fence and into a residential backyard. But moments later, the vehicle then returned to the road, almost hitting the police car headon.
A second police car was dispatched and the car was eventually “pinned” and forced to stop, but not before it smashed through another fence, according to police.
The driver was reported to be 11 years old and his companion in the passenger seat was 12.
No other details were released, but police say because of their ages, no charges will be laid. The driver was released to this mother on Sunday evening and the passenger to his father. Despite the high speeds of the chase, no injuries were reported but police say there was extensive damage to multiple fences as well as damage to the vehicle.
The incident comes a year and a half after a 12-year-old boy commandeered his parent’s SUV and took it on a Toronto highway, weaving erratically through traffic in the early hours of the morning.