Drunk dad lets 9-year-old drive van (Dean, Michigan)

It's an UNNAMED DAD. The 9-year-old daughter was released to "a relative." Didn't she have a mother?

Dad's response as to why he let the 9-year-old drive is almost comic except for the fact that it's so bizarre.

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT

http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2011/10/14/news/doc4e9888287ba90905862007.txt?viewmode=default

BROWNSTOWN TWP.: Alleged drunken dad lets 9-year-old drive van
Published: Friday, October 14, 2011

By Jackie Harrison-Martin

BROWNSTOWN TWP. — A father, suspected of being intoxicated, was arrested after police found his 9-year-old daughter behind the wheel of his GMC van being driven on King Road near Dean.

A motorist called police at about 2:45 a.m. Oct. 8 and said he believed he had seen a child driving a van and it looked like the passenger was intoxicated.

According to police, the motorist followed the van from a gas station at Telegraph and West roads to Beech Daly and King roads.

The witness stayed on the telephone with a dispatcher until an officer arrived.

The child could be seen driving the van, with the father in the passenger’s seat, police said.

After an officer activated his overhead lights, the van was stopped and the father jumped out, according to police.

By the time the officer approached the van, the girl was in the passenger’s seat.

The officer asked the girl why she was driving the van, and she said her father always lets her drive, the report said.

The girl asked the officer why she was pulled over, saying she was “driving great” and did not do anything wrong. The officer told her she was too young to drive.
The report said the father’s eyes were bloodshot and glassy, and the officer could smell a strong odor of intoxicants.

When asked if he had been drinking, the father told police that he had a few drinks.

The father told police that he let his 9-year-old drive because it “was 3 a.m. and no one was on the road.”

“Wouldn’t you let your kid drive?” the man asked the officer.
The father refused to take a Breathalyzer test to determine if he was intoxicated, the report said.

The girl told police that her father began drinking a large bottle of whiskey that morning.

She was released to a relative.