12-year-old boy arrested, tried to drive from NSW to WA

A 12-year-old boy may be facing charges after driving 1,300 kilometres across New South Wales in the family car on Saturday. He was en route to Perth and was crossing the NSW border when he was pulled over by police.

According to news.com.au, the unnamed boy left his home in Kendall about 11:10 a.m. on Friday. He drove the family’s Mazda CX-3, which had been reported stolen. Highway patrol officers pulled him over at Broken Hill 24 hours later after they noticed that diesel car’s bumper was dragging on the ground.

“He’d taken the family car,” Detective Inspector Kim Fehon was quoted by the publication as saying. “His parents reported him missing immediately after he left home, so they were looking for him.”

The boy pulled into the Caltex service station at cover to fill up his petrol tank on Saturday morning. However, he drove off without paying $19. Manager Vamshi Reddy said he did not shut off the pumps because the boy looked older than 12 years old.

Fehon added that the car had suffered some damage, which could mean that the boy had an accident while driving. It is still unknown why the boy took off with the car and attempted to cross the country.

The boy was arrested and taken to Broken Hill Police Station. He may be facing three offences under the Young Offenders Act, including driving without a licence and failing to pay for petrol.

Underage drivers around the world

He was not the first underage driver caught by the police. In Germany last year, another 12-year-old boy borrowed his parents’ car and drove 125 miles from their home in Limbach-Frohnau to the city of Bamberg to see his grandparents. He fortunately encountered no accident and had successfully reached his grandparents’ house. As he was under the age of 14, he did not face prosecution.

The same cannot be said with a 14-year-old US boy who drove a Ford Explorer with six passengers in Florida earlier this month. According to the Florida Highway Patrol report, he was trying to change lanes but noticed there was another car in the other lane and so he overcorrected to avoid a crash. However, he lost control off the car and went off the road and hit a barrier wall.

He and five of his passengers, which included a 3-year-old and two 6-year-old kids, were seriously injured. His 32-year-old mother and the other kids’ 34-year-old father also suffered serious injuries. A 16-year-old passenger suffered only minor injuries. The teen driver was charged with careless driving and driving without a licence.

In 2014, a 10-year-old Norwegian boy not only took his parents’ car, but also his 18-month-old sister. He was heading for their grandparents’ house in Valdres, about 60 kilometres away from their home in Dokka. He drove more than 10 kilometres before he fell into a snowy ditch. When asked by local police, he claimed he was a dwarf and had only forgotten his driver’s licence at home. No charges were filed.