Incredulous Cop at Scene of Car Crash: 'She's Driving?'

Utah girls, 9 and 4, had tried to drive to the ocean but ended up slamming into tractor-trailer
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 3, 2021 7:30 AM CDT
Utah Girls, 9 and 4, Crash Car in Attempt to Drive to Ocean
Screenshot from bodycam video at the accident scene.   (Twitter/West Valley City Police Department)

We're all eager for summer to get started, but two little girls from West Jordan, Utah, simply couldn't wait a single minute more. NBC News reports that police responding to an early morning accident in West Valley City on Wednesday got quite a shock when they found out who was in the car that slammed into a tractor-trailer on an off-ramp to Utah State Route 201. A bodycam video released by WVC Police shows one responding officer showing up at the accident scene just after 5am, only to find another officer tending to two little girls in the car: a 4-year-old and her 9-year-old sister, the driver. "She's driving?" the incredulous cop says to his colleague. The girls told police they'd taken their parents' car to go on a trip to California to "swim in the ocean." Thankfully, no one was hurt, police say, adding that was likely because the girls remembered to wear their seat belts. The family car, however, suffered "serious damage," police note, adding: "Even the semi had to be towed!"

Detective Scott List of the West Jordan Police Department tells KUTV that the parents were still snoozing when cops showed up at the house to inform them of the accident. The parents say the girls were able to slip out of the house at around 3am through a basement door, the only one without a latch, after somehow swiping the keys from a place "not normally accessible by children," per List. It took the sisters another hour and a half to figure out how to operate the car and leave the driveway, he tells FOX 13. The crash took place about 10 miles from their home. Apparently the girls had been talking openly for some time about their dreams of heading to the Golden State to swim with the dolphins. "This is a motivated kid," List says. "To do what she did is impressive. Scary, but impressive." There's one thing police are keeping from the young joyriders. "I don't know that we'll tell them they were going the wrong way," Lt. Sean McCarthy of the WVC Police adds. (More car crash stories.)

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