Mom's designated driver: her 13-year-old son

[Kadie]

Mom's designated driver: her 13-year-old son
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

(10-06) 15:04 PDT SAN ANSELMO --

A Marin County woman faces charges for allegedly letting her 13-year-old son drive her and her boyfriend from a restaurant because they had been drinking, authorities said today.

Heather Choulos, 32, of Mill Valley was charged with child endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, both misdemeanors, and an infraction for letting her son drive, authorities said.

Her boyfriend, a 29-year-old San Rafael man, was arrested but has not been charged.

The incident happened Sunday night in San Anselmo, police Sgt. Rob Schneider said. Both Choulos and her boyfriend have convictions for driving under the influence, and decided to pressure Choulos' son into driving them home, police said.

The boy got behind the wheel of the Land Rover and drove around San Anselmo. He "freaked out" and grew frustrated, ultimately stopping the vehicle in the middle of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard near Red Hill Avenue, Schneider said.

"It sounds like the boy didn't really want to drive it," Schneider said. "He said he wasn't going to drive anymore."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/06/BA9E1A209P.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0TCJxGNQH

[alp227]

1. Underage driving, drunk driving, equally bad offenses

That's why you use public transportation, call a taxi, or get a designated driver. Oh, and thank you for putting this up before I found this on RSS.

[MichiganVote]

2. Wish I could have driven at 13...but not with a drunk.

[Fire1]

3. If he had gotten them home safely without incident it would have

been the less of two evils.:shrug:

[aikoaiko]

4. My mother taught me how to drive at 11 in case of an emergency.

But not because she was blotto.

[MountainLaurel]

5. This is unfortunately not a surprise

Talk to people raised by substance abusers, and many of them have a similar stories.