First-grader crashes mother's car after 10-mile drive

A first-grader suffered minor injuries after crashing his mother's car into utility poll on Route 360 in Northumberland County. Police say the 6-year-old boy missed his school bus Monday morning and decided to drive himself to school. Investigators say the boy's mother was sleeping when he grabbed her car keys and got behind the wheel.

"He wanted to go to school, so he took his mother's car and drive 10.4 miles before he crashed," said Sheriff Churck Wilkins of the Northumberland County Sheriff's Office.

The accident happened a mile away from the boy's school. Investigators say they got a number of calls about the car swerving all over the road. Wilkins says the boy is lucky to be alive.

"He was asked by the investigator how he'd learned how to drive," Wilkins said, "and he stated that he played a lot of video games like Grand Theft Auto and monster trucks"...

--NBC12

Ponytail Helps Save 10-Year-Old Who Fell In Icy Canal

Jazmine Peters, 10, escaped drowning in the historic Portage Canal by the hair on her head.

Cousin Jeff Gjavenis, also 10, grabbed Jazmine's thick ponytail to keep her head above water after she slid off the Ice Age Trail and into the canal Sunday night.

The scene of the incident is well known to the family members. Jazmine's mother, Terri Reilley, grew up with a sister and cousin on the Old Indian Agency House land where her parents have been resident caretakers for decades. The site is where travelers centuries ago portaged canoes between the Wisconsin and Fox rivers and where the canal eventually was built.

Jazmine, Jeff and three other cousins had gone for a walk and went across a bridge to the other side of the canal. That's when Jazmine fell in and her cousins came to the rescue, Jeff holding her head above water with her ponytail and Taylor Weirich pulling her with the strap on her snow pants...

--WISC TV