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CNN Live Sunday

7-Year-Old Driver Causes Accident in Florida

Aired February 17, 2002 - 18:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: In Florida, what appeared to be an ordinary car crash took on a whole new dimension when police found out who was in the driver's seat and who was riding shotgun. Nobody was injured in the incident on Friday night in Newport Richie, but those involved still have some explaining to do. Amani Channel of our affiliate WTVT has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MINDY FISHER: My first new car, too.

AMANI CHANNEL, WTVT CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Mindy Fisher surveyed the damage done to her new 2002 Mitsubishi Galant.

FISHER: I got a new car, never drives the same, you know.

CHANNEL: While driving home at this Newport Richie intersection Friday night, Mindy and her husband Eric were hit by this Mercury Tracer, and to their surprise, the driver was only 7 years old.

CHANNEL (on camera): How did you come to realize that there was a child driving the car? What made you think it was a child driving the car?

FISHER: Well, my husband right before they had hit us, my husband's like "oh my God, I think that that's a kid." And so then I, of course, as soon as they hit us and I'd realized that it was a kid was when I stepped out of the vehicle, looked into the car, and was asking the father who was stepping out of the car from the passenger side, what is going on here? Why in the world would you let a child drive a car?

CHANNEL (voice-over): Witnesses say the boy's father, 38-year- old Barry Colbert (ph) was riding in the passenger side, but that he switched seats and was leaving the scene when deputies arrived.

JON POWERS, PASSCO COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Apparently, Mr. Colbert occasionally allows his son to drive a motor vehicle as a reward for being good. This obviously is, a) illegal, and b) extremely dangerous. We were just really lucky last night that no one was hurt in the crash.

CHANNEL: Colbert failed the field sobriety test, and deputies say his license is suspended because he's a habitual traffic offender. CHANNEL (on camera): We spoke to the boy's mother who said she was asleep on the couch at the time of the accident and says she really doesn't know much about what happened.

CHANNEL (voice over): But she says her son had no business driving in the first place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLAWAY: That was Amani Channel with our Florida affiliate WTVT.

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