Jan 10 2007 - NZPA
Rotorua police were "amazed and horrified" when they stopped a car driving erratically and found a 14-year-old girl at the wheel with her mother drunk in the passenger seat.
The car had been spotted twice narrowly missing collision with oncoming trucks on State Highway 2 before it was stopped at 8am yesterday on White Pine Bush Rd near Whakatane, the Rotorua Daily Post reported today.
The mother, 35, who was allegedly drunk, had been driving from Auckland with the teenager and three other children aged between five and 10 in the car.
Her daughter took over when she had started falling asleep at the wheel, police said.
The mother had been charged with breaching her learner's licence and further charges including driving with excess breath alcohol were likely, police said.
The case had also been referred to Child Youth and Family.
Senior Sergeant Bruce Jenkins said it was lucky other drivers reported the car's erratic behaviour.
"This was a multiple fatality just waiting to happen."
Mankind has created spectacular works of art, engineered incredibly tall buildings, designed impressive supercomputers, lived in outerspace, discovered cures for nasty diseases. As a whole, nothing can compare to human intelligence, but sometimes, humans should act more like a parent, less like a child.
14-year-old driver nabbed with drunk mum as passenger