10:59am| A 13-year-old who was driving a stolen car led California Highway Patrol officers on a short pursuit before crashing the car into a light pole Monday, according to the CHP.
Though the driver was not injured, he was taken to a local hospital as a precaution because the driver’s side airbag reportedly deployed during the accident, KTLA Channel 5 News reported.
A motorist who saw the children in the car on the 105 Freeway by the Wilmington Avenue exit near Compton Monday morning recognized that they were too young to be driving and called the CHP at about 9:53 a.m., Officer Darren Wybenga of the CHP told KTLA.
The teen driver refused to pull over when CHP spotted the car minutes later, and a short pursuit ensued.
During the chase, the driver reportedly ran several stop lights before, about 15 minutes after the roughly 5-mile pursuit began, slamming the car into and taking out a restored antique lamp post. The crash occurred on Armando Drive just east of Atlantic Avenue in the Long Beach neighborhood of Bixby Knolls.
Eyewitness Marvin Todd told KTLA that the teen driver nearly hit four or five other motorists as he swerved onto Atlantic from Carson Street before “frantically” weaving back and forth down Atlantic.
The 10-year-old was taken into custody while officials attempted to contact his parents.
Authorities said that neither youth matches the description of the suspect who allegedly stole the vehicle.
To watch KTLA’s report on the incident, click here.