A Newmarket woman has been charged with impaired driving after she was pulled over by York Regional Police after police say her nine-year-old son called 911 while she was at the wheel.

Police say the boy called from a cellphone just before 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday but didn't speak to the operator.

They say the operator called back and the boy said he was in a van with his mother, who had been drinking.

“He was able to tell us that he was a passenger in a vehicle, that his mother was driving and he believed she was drinking and driving,” says YRP Constable Andy Pattenden.

The boy told the dispatcher it was a white van and they were travelling in the area of King Township. Police say the mother did get on the phone; she told the dispatcher she had one drink. The dispatcher told her to pull over but she hung up the phone.

Police got enough details from the boy, were dispatched and able to find the van.

Officers stopped the van in the area of Mulock Drive and Young Street. The driver, a 52-year-old woman was arrested for impaired driving and was taken to a nearby police station for a breathalyser test, where she blew more than twice the legal limit.

The boy was released into the custody of his father but Children’s Aid Society was also notified.   

The woman was released from custody and will appear in court in the next couple of weeks.