Even children know that drunk driving is wrong and downright dangerous. That’s why one 11-year-old called the police when his mother was driving drunk.
Thirty-year-old Nicole Norris took her son to a Hillsboro Hops minor league basketball game when her 11-year-old felt something was wrong with his mother’s driving.
So, the boy called 911 for help.
“He said his mom was drunk driving,” Washington County Deputy Shannon Wilde told CBS News. “He wanted our help.”
He wasn’t the only one to report her driving to the cops. Poice said there were two other drivers who called them to report her erratic driving.
“I think Mom told him to put the phone down… we lost that ability to track the phone which is why we got to where we thought they lived,” Wilde explained.
The call came in when Norris was in Beaverton in Portland, OR near Murray Blvd. and Walker Rd. but police didn’t find Norris until she was closer to her house in the Garden Home area.
When she was pulled over she was given a field sobriety test, which she failed.
“We had her walk on a line, look at her feet, count her steps out loud, that type of thing,” Wilde told KOIN 6.
Tests showed that her blood alcohol content was twice the legal limit. Her son told officers that he watched her have too much to drink.
“He was able to tell us how much he saw her drinking and told us he thought she hit a curb,” Wild told KATU 2. “Her driving was so bad he realized this was no normal.”
Norris was arrested for a driving under the influence of intoxicants. Her son was picked up by a family member.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Wilde said. “He was a very brave courageous young man, sometimes doing the right thing is not easy, especially when you are 11. But he felt unsafe enough that he reached out for help and we are very glad that he did.”
Hillsboro Hops President and General Manager K.L. Wombacher said that the Hillsboro Hops takes excessive drinking at their games very seriously.
“Thousands of people come to the games,” he told KOIN 6. “We do our best and put the best protocols in place to have a safe environment and that’s our goal.”
Wilde said that Norris could face child endangerment charges as well, but that would be up to the district attorney.
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