Elementary Joyride

[Anchor Lead]

A nine-year-old boy in Daejeon stole his mother's car and crashed into ten vehicles in a parking lot. Accidents involving elementary school children have been on the rise recently.

[Pkg]

A passenger car enters the underground parking lot of a district ward office and rams one of the parked vehicles. It then moves in reverse and hits cars on the other side.

[Soundbite] "Get off! Get off!"

The startled parking lot staff tells the driver to get off, but he leaves with scene. The driver turned out to be a nine-year-old boy. He stole the key to his mother's car and drove it in the morning hours when he was supposed to be heading to school. The boy drove to the district ward office before returning home. He then left the parking lot of his apartment building again and drove seven kilometers for about 50 minutes. The hit-and-run driving rampage ended in ten wrecked vehicles. Fortunately, there were no people in the cars and the driver himself was unharmed. The boy told police that he wanted to try his hand at driving because he enjoyed playing racing games and only drove on familiar roads. A few days ago, an eleven-year-old child in Jeju also drove a car, hitting one pedestrian. Three accidents involving elementary school children occurred in the nation in just two weeks. Extra caution is needed on the part of children's parents and guardians to prevent serious accidents.