INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — A woman is facing charges involving a car that crashed into a Missouri daycare Wednesday. But she wasn’t the one behind the wheel.

Police say the driver was an impatient 11-year-old boy.
Count on Me Academy near MO-291 and Gudgell partially closed from the crash, only serving younger children on the north side of the building.

The other half of the building was blocked off, where a bush is missing in front of the brick building where there’s a large crack and the portion of the wall below the window is pushed in significantly.

“The window was pushed in it looks to me at least four inches or more because you can see the edging there. So I think its probably going to cost a little bit to get fixed,” Lisa Greenwall, who works at the salon next door, said.

Police say a mother arrived about 4 p.m. to pick up children at the daycare and left her 11-year-old son in the car.

“It’s kind of scary leaving an 11-year-old child in the car unattended,” Chalene Williams said.

The boy told police his mom was taking too long inside, so he decided to drive off. He thought the car was in reverse, but it was actually in drive and he crashed into the building. Thankfully no one was injured.

The damage is bad enough the daycare’s owner says they are still working to determine what repairs will need to be made and if and when they will be able to put the older age group of children inside that half of the daycare.

“I don’t think it was a high rate of speed but yeah I think there was enough damage that the building is going to have to have quite a bit of work,” Greenwall said.

Police cited the mother for endangering the welfare of a child for leaving him in a car with it running. They said she was not immediately booked so she could attend to her children. Police say the child who crashed into the daycare, isn’t in any trouble, at least with the law.