A 9-year-old boy ended up behind the wheel of his grandmother's car and drove off on a highway, and remarkably, nobody was hurt. But exactly where this happened depends on which report you read, and the underlying facts diverge in ways that have not been reconciled.
According to FOX 32 Chicago, police reported that a 9-year-old boy crashed his grandmother's SUV in Gary, Indiana, with witnesses capturing video of the incident that has since gone viral. That report does not include additional detail on how the boy came to be driving or what happened immediately before or after the crash.
A separate account from wpri.com describes a 9-year-old boy as safe and uninjured after going on a joyride in his grandmother's car on a Saturday afternoon. Per that report, the boy took off south on I-75 before eventually driving into a neighborhood on Benchwood Road in Butler Township — a location wpri.com ties to Tipp City, Ohio, not Indiana. The two accounts do not identify the same location, and nothing in the available reporting confirms whether they describe the same incident.
How the Car Reportedly Got Moving
Per wpri.com's account, the boy figured out how to blow into a breathalyzer installed in the car in order to start it — a detail that, if accurate, indicates the vehicle had an ignition interlock device. That same report describes the vehicle as a 2007 white Toyota Camry, which stands in contrast to the FOX 32 Chicago account describing the vehicle as an SUV.
Wpri.com's version says the vehicle eventually came to a stop just off the highway after crashing into another vehicle. The boy was reported uninjured in that account. The FOX 32 Chicago report, meanwhile, does not specify whether anyone besides the boy was involved in the Gary crash it describes, nor does it detail how the collision came to a stop.
What Remains Unconfirmed
Because the two reports disagree on the state, the type of vehicle, and other basic details, it is not established whether they describe a single event or two separate incidents involving 9-year-old drivers. No police department, official statement, charges, or citations tied to either version have been identified in the available reporting, and the identities of the child, the grandmother, the other driver, or any witnesses have not been made public in either account.
In July, ABC7 Chicago reported that two children were among four people injured after a police chase originating in Indiana ended in a crash, a version of the same incident that CBS News Chicago described as beginning with a pursuit by officers from Lake County, Indiana. Those cases involved police pursuits rather than a child driving alone, underscoring how differently this particular joyride story reads compared to other recent crashes tied to the region.
