11-year-old charged with DUI, fleeing cops at 100 mph

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Police who chased a Chevrolet Monte Carlo for miles along a highway at speeds up to 100 mph said the driver was drunk, hardly a rarity in the resort town of Orange Beach. But there was more: When they looked inside the flipped vehicle with guns drawn, they found an 11-year-old girl at the wheel.

"You go up there thinking it's a felon you're dealing with," assistant police Chief Greg Duck said.

The girl, who lived in Cantonment, Fla., was treated at a hospital for scrapes and bruises and released to relatives.

She was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident. Duck said she sideswiped another vehicle during the roughly 8-mile chase.

The chase began around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday when a patrol officer near the Florida line saw the car speeding west along a beach highway, Duck said. When the officer flicked on his lights, the driver sped up. The driver rolled the car just inside the Gulf Shores city limit.

Police ran up to the car with guns drawn, expecting to find a fleeing felon. Instead, they discovered the girl, who was obviously intoxicated, Duck said.

She told officers she was headed to Orange Beach to pick up her sister from a concert, but police have not determined if that is true.

Investigators think she was vacationing with her family in nearby Perdido Key, Fla. Duck said the girl's name was not released because of her age.

Investigators found no alcohol in the vehicle but believe the girl drank before getting behind the wheel of the car, which belongs to relatives.

While the legal blood-alcohol content for adults in Alabama is .08, the limit for anyone younger than 21 is .02. Without disclosing her blood-alcohol content, Duck told the Mobile Press-Register newspaper the 11-year-old had enough alcohol in her system that she could have been charged with a DUI even if she had been an adult.

Reuters and Pensacola News Journal material is included in this report.