Boy drove truck while father slept

An eight-year-old boy was seen driving a pick-up truck down a US interstate while his drunken father slept in the passenger seat, Louisiana state police said today.

Troopers said the man’s four-year-old daughter was in the back seat when the truck was stopped in Livingston Parish.

The child’s driving was so erratic that it alarmed motorists, who called authorities.

The children have been handed over to Louisiana Child Protective Services.

Their father, 28-year-old Billy Joe Madden of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was booked into the Livingston Parish Jail on charges including child desertion and allowing a minor to drive.