Utah Sisters, 9 and 4, Crash Family Car While Attempting to Drive to Calif. to 'Swim in the Ocean'
West Valley City Police Department The girls in the car
Two young sisters from Utah escaped unscathed from a car crash after police say they took their parents' car to drive to California with the hopes of making it to the beach.
The West Valley City Police Department confirmed the incident in a post on their social media accounts, noting that a 9-year-old girl was behind the wheel at the time of the crash.
Officers said the girl and her 4-year-old sister "snagged the keys to the family car while their parents were sleeping and set out on their own summer adventure" on Wednesday morning.
The girls, who live in West Jordan, drove approximately 10 miles from their home and even managed to get onto a highway and freeway before the collision, police said.
Officers got quite a surprise when they responded to an accident this morning & discovered the driver was a 9yo girl. The young girl & her 4yo sister apparently snagged the keys to the family car while their parents were sleeping & set out on their own summer adventure. #wvc pic.twitter.com/evHq3DiBRC
— WVC Police (@WVCPD) June 2, 2021
After exiting the freeway, the girls' car hopped a median and slammed head-on into a semi-truck, police said.
Body camera footage of a responding officer was posted to the police department's social media and showed the moment he arrived at the scene, only to learn the 9-year-old girl was behind the wheel.
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"That's crazy. She was driving!?" the officer can be heard saying to another cop, who had been consoling the children inside the car.
According to authorities, the girls said they were headed to California because they wanted to "swim in the ocean."
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West Jordan, where the children live, is located 13.5 miles from Salt Lake City. It's also at least 800 miles from a California beach.
Police said the girls' car "suffered serious damage," while the semi-truck had to be towed from the scene.
"Thankfully, though, no one got hurt," they noted in the post, adding that, "We suspect in large part because those little girls at least remembered to wear their seatbelts!"