A 14-year-old teenager from the north-east of France stole his parents’ car and embarked on a crazy chase with the police, at 180 km/h on the motorway, before driving it the wrong way. , French justice said on Monday.
This boy with no criminal record will appear before the children’s judge within two months, for “deliberately endangering others, theft, fraud, driving without a license”, as well as for all of his traffic offenses, indicated the prosecutor of Montbéliard (north-east).
He was placed under judicial supervision, he added.
The police chased the teenager for 61.5 kilometers. “The young man was slaloming between the cars, going up the emergency lane at 180 km/h,” says the prosecutor, frightened.
He then turned around and took the highway in the wrong direction, on the emergency lane, then finally lost control of the vehicle. He continued on foot before being arrested in a village near Dole (Jura).
His dangerous driving caused an accident between three vehicles, including a gendarmerie car, causing three minor injuries.
Placed in police custody, “he apologized flatly,” according to the prosecutor.
“This frail kid provided some rather vague explanations in the face of astonishing facts,” said the magistrate: “he explains that he had problems at school, but does not say what. What is astonishing is to see that he was able to lead a chase, on an accident-prone section, at 180 km/h, foot to the floor, for so many kilometers.”
This boy “comes from an ordinary family, without worries”, he “had not been talked about, apart from an alternative procedure, in connection with harassment, with other minors”, according to the prosecutor. Since the start of the school year, he had run away several times.