Officers got quite a surprise when they responded to an accident this morning & discovered the driver was a 9yo girl. The young girl & her 4yo sister apparently snagged the keys to the family car while their parents were sleeping & set out on their own summer adventure. #wvc pic.twitter.com/evHq3DiBRC
— WVC Police (@WVCPD) June 2, 2021
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, June 2, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — More details and a video have been released after West Valley City police officers responding to a Wednesday morning crash involving a car and semi-truck learned the car’s driver was a 9-year-old girl, and her 4-year-old sister was along for the ride.
“Officers got quite a surprise when they responded to an accident this morning and discovered the driver was a 9-year-old girl,” said a tweet from WVCPD at 3 p.m. “The young girl and her 4-year-old sister apparently snagged the keys to the family car while their parents were sleeping and set out on their own summer adventure.”
A follow-up tweet said: “The girls drove about 10 miles from their home in West Jordan — via a highway and a freeway — before exiting off, hopping a median and slamming head-on into a semi truck. The car suffered serious damage. Even the semi had to be towed!”
A third tweet said: “Thankfully, though, no one got hurt, we suspect in large part because those little girls at least remembered to wear their seat belts! So, what prompted this impromptu trip? The girls told officers that they were headed to California because they wanted to ‘swim in the ocean.'”
West Valley City Police Lt. Sean McCarthy told Gephardt Daily the 9-year-old and her younger sibling took the family’s car and made it from West Jordan to West Valley City before colliding with the semi about 5:05 a.m. at the intersection of 3200 West and the 2100 South Frontage Road near SR-201.
“Somewhere between Bangerter Highway and SR-201, when they were getting onto SR-201, they sideswiped a pickup truck of some type,” McCarthy said. “The driver of that pickup truck believed they were intoxicated due to their driving and was following them eastbound on SR-201. When they got to the off-ramp for 3200 West and 201, they exited 201 and crossed several lanes of traffic.”
The 9-year-old driver then struck the semi-truck, McCarthy said.
The girls were checked out by the fire department at the scene and McCarthy said the girls’ parents then planned to take them to an area hospital as a precaution.
The semi-truck driver was not injured.
