Search: East Sussex boy joyrider
A five-year-old boy took his family's automatic 4x4 on a four-mile "joyride" before crashing it into a wall, it has been disclosed.
Traffic officers described the incident as "remarkable" and said the boy and other drivers were lucky to have escaped without serious injury.
Several motorists dialled 999 after spotting a Mitsubishi Shogun being driven erratically and slowly by a small boy on roads east of Chichester, West Sussex, just after 7am on Thursday.
At around the same time, the boy's father reported to police that his son had driven off in the family vehicle moments beforehand. A short while later the 4x4 hit a wall in Pook Lane, Lavant, and Sussex Police believe the boy had travelled just over four miles from his home before crashing.
The child, who has not been identified, was taken to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester as a precaution but appears to have been uninjured and was reunited with his family.
A driver who had been briefly following the Shogun took care of the boy while police and an ambulance were called, said a force spokesman. Police later received reports of three other vehicles, two of which were parked, being damaged by the Shogun but nobody was injured.
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The 4x4 was first seen by drivers travelling along a short stretch of the A27 between Tangmere and the junction with the A285, then up to Halnaker and then across country to Lavant.
The force spokesman said: "Police believe that the car travelled just over four miles from the address. Several witnesses have spoken of it being driven at a slow speed, but erratically."
Officers have met with the family to explain what happened but no further action will be taken, the spokesman added.
Pc Mark Ryan, of Sussex Police's road policing unit based at Chichester, said: "This was a remarkable incident and both the boy and other road users clearly had a lucky escape, as a serious collision could have happened at any stage."
