A 9-year-old boy drove a car into a Mankato recreation building with an adult sitting at his side and while the youngster's mother was standing nearby, authorities said.
Boy, 9, drives car into YMCA building in Mankato as man rode along
The man and the boy's mother, who was nearby, could be charged with child endangerment, police said.
August 23, 2019 at 12:12PM
Police said they will seek charges of child endangerment against the two adults in connection with the crash Tuesday night.
Officers were called to the YMCA's Chesley Skate Park in the 100 block of Jaycee Court shortly before 8:40 p.m. Tuesday and saw the car had hit the building after the boy "accidentally accelerated," a police statement read.
The boy "was driving in reverse across the parking lot and somehow was able to get in gear going forward," said Police Cmdr. Dan Schisel, who noted that the vehicle had a manual transmission.
The front-seat passenger, a 22-year-old man from Andover and the car's owner, was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital with minor injuries. The boy was unharmed.
"I don't know why the boy was sitting in the position he was," said Schisel, who added that the mother "was standing in the vicinity." He said he was unsure whether the mother saw the crash.
The skate park, which offers indoor and outdoor space for skateboarding, bicycling, in-line skating and scooter riding, was open at the time of the incident.
The car punched a small hole into one side of the building. Schisel said no bystanders were hurt.
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