In Illinois you had to be 18 to have passengers.
Florida? No idea, but there are no laws here.
DELAND, Fla. (TMX) - A 12-year-old and a 17-year-old were arrested this week for allegedly street racing in Florida, officials said.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office released a video that showed a deputy stopping two vehicles for street racing shortly before 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29, in DeLand, only to find one of the drivers was too young to be licensed.
“I was just, I was going, I was testing,” the 12-year-old sputtered when the deputy asked for his driver’s license.
The deputy asked the boy’s age as he placed him in handcuffs and sounded shocked when he responded that he’s 12.
“My bad, sir,” the boy says.
The deputy turned to the 17-year-old’s vehicle and asked who the car belongs to; he says it belongs to his mother.
“So she’s gonna be mad when it gets impounded today for racing on the highway?” the deputy asked.
“Yes, sir,” the boy says.
The deputy also spoke with with a 16-year-old passenger in one of the vehicles. He says they had been fishing nearby and he asked to call his mother.
The 12-year-old’s mother arrived at the scene and the deputy explained to her that both cars were “racing towards” him side by side.
The mother says something unintelligible, to which the deputy responded, “I cannot slap them.”
“Me?” she asked, apparently indicating that she meant she might slap him.
“That’s your child,” the deputy says with surprise. “Corporal punishment’s completely illegal.”
A man arrived on the scene and said the “fast Corolla” driven by the 17-year-old belonged to him.
“Well, he was racing a 12-year-old,” the deputy says. “So, he’s getting arrested today.”
The man and a woman seemed surprised, and the deputy confirmed that “racing on a roadway is illegal.”
“How fast were they going?” the man asks.
“It doesn’t matter!” the deputy says. “They lined up down there, I’m parked on the side of the road watching traffic and they come racing towards me. I’m not driving an unmarked car. I’m in a completely marked patrol car and they come racing at me.”
The man tried to talk the deputy out of arresting the teen.
“He’s not physically getting arrested and going to jail,” the deputy assures the man, “but he’s gonna get a crim cite [criminal citation] and he’s gonna have to go to court.”
Both young drivers were arrested and cited, though the sheriff’s office did not release their names or the specific citations.