A Texas man did the drinking and decided to let his 11-year-old son, who was barely able to see over the steering wheel, do the driving, police said.
Police said Wednesday they had arrested Robert Lee Crider on charges of child endangerment, public intoxication and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle.
Crider’s son was pulled over by a Texas state trooper outside of the west Texas town of Big Spring in the predawn hours of Saturday after the officer saw the car speeding and weaving through traffic, said Sgt. Jason Hester, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Crider apparently was taking his son home for the weekend as a part of a custody arrangement with his ex-wife. Crider and a friend stopped off at a bar with the boy, and when the two adults became too drunk to drive, they handed the keys of the rental car over to the boy.
The boy was pulled over just as the group started on a trip of some 200 miles to Crider’s home. They had passed several motels before they were stopped by the trooper, Hester said.
Police fed the boy a grilled cheese sandwich, found a mattress for him to sleep on and called his mother, who picked him up and drove him back to her home.
