Saturday, September 1, 2007

He's a good driver

The neighbors in Lafayette IN last Sunday, thought something wasn't quite right when they saw a young boy behind the wheel of a car. All too often we hear the tragic results of an incident like this on the evening news.

Concerned neighbors not only called the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department but one of them took the vehicle's keys to prevent the "designated driver" and his mother from driving from the scene. According to the police, Holly Schnobrich, 24, of Lafayette, admitted taking the painkiller Percocet and had her son driving as the designated driver.

When Schnobrich was asked if the five year-old behind the wheel was driving her car, she stated that he was in fact, a good driver. Her son admitted that even though he hopes to become a race car driver, at the time, he couldn't reach the pedals. Both the driver and his 3 year-old brother were taken into the custody of the Department of Child Services.

Schnobrich was charged with two counts of felony neglect and one count of public intoxication. Neither of her children had been restrained in the car, I suppose that slipped her mind when she decided that she needed to go for a drive that day. She was being held in the Tippecanoe County Jail on a $10,000 surety bond.

According to the prosecutors, Schnobrich had pleaded guilty just last week, to an unrelated charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated. It would seem that in her drug-fogged mind, having your 5 year-old as the designated driver, met the "no driving" part of her plea.

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