Boy Misses School Bus, Steals Ride

The boy, who took along a nine-year-old friend who also missed the bus, managed to make it more than two kilometres in his father's Renault Megane before crashing into a roadside pylon, police in the town of Valence reported.

The boy said: "I had my seat belt on."

Neither of the boys was injured. Police said the boy could face charges of driving without a licence and damaging public property but that prosecutors would decide whether to press ahead with the case.