While we've seen countless story regarding children using Grand Theft Auto as their inspiration to do wrong, it's extremely rare that we see news about GTA being cited as a cause for good. It happened on August 27th around 9pm, as the Norris family of five was heading to Diamond, Illinois to visit relatives. Their 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee swerved off the road, hitting a guardrail and flipping four times before coming to a stop, caving in the roof and smashing out the back window. With her mother hanging upside down and her father pinned against the steering wheel, 11-year-old Audrey Plique climbed out of the back window and helped her parents and two younger siblings escape the car. The motivation for her heroic act, according to her mother Karen Norris?
"She just knew, from playing 'Grand Theft Auto.' She saw on there that when a car rolls over, it can blow up. She knew that could happen to us"
I know, I had to make sure the story was true as well, going so far as to call the story's writer, Craig Wieczorkiewicz, to verify the details. "It's amazing the sort of information that comes out when you ask the right questions," he offered, after I commented on the rarity of such stories. So yes, the Grand Theft Auto series can easily become the scapegoat for any number of crimes, but it can also inspire heroism in the heart of a preteen girl with an unrealistic grasp on automobile physics. Of course this will be discounted as a freak occurrence by those that choose to believe violent games cause violent children, but for us the story can serve as an example of video games teaching us helpful, if relatively inaccurate things. Preteen girl helps family escape crashed vehicle [MyWebTimes]