Police: Designated driver was 12

LIBERTY HILL, Texas (KXAN) - Drinking and driving is a bad idea.

Monday night Thomas Skinner, 59, of Houston knew it, so he got a designated driver, police said. He called on his grandson for help. The only problem is that his grandson is 12 years old.

Skinner's other grandson is 11years old, and he was in the back seat.

Now, the man is under arrest and charged in Williamson County with two counts of abandoning or endangering a child.

Karen Housewright, state director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving , said Skinner got points for getting a designated driver, but naming a child below the legal driving age doesn't deserve kudos.

"He was right to look for a designated driver if he was drinking himself, but a 12-year-old grandson is clearly not somebody who should be put in charge of getting a 2,000-pound vehicle with human beings inside of it home safely," she said.

Liberty Hill Police officer Michael Manis responded to a 911 call about a truck's hazardous driving on westbound State Highway 29. When he pulled the truck over, he saw the 12-year-old at the wheel. He asked the allegedly intoxicated grandfather of the boys, "Why?"

Skinner replied, "He's learning how to drive," according to police.

The joyride started somewhere east of Georgetown on State Highway 29 and ended up about 20 miles down the road in Liberty Hill in the 16,000 block of west State Highway 29.

Questions still remain as to what the two Houston boys and their grandfather were doing on the highway in the first place.

Housewright said the point of having a designated driver is to get somebody safe, and to get somebody legal. She said that's the entire point behind the Designated Driver program. She added that perhaps they could say the "Designated Legal Driver," but that is usually understood.

The boys were released to their father Monday night and Liberty Hill police told KXAN Austin News they have returned home to Houston.

Skinner is still being held at the Williamson County Jail. There is no word on when he will be released.