Runaway 13-year-old girls drove over 145 miles before slamming car into tree after falling asleep at the wheel

The girls were discovered at 5 a.m. in a car that had rammed into a tree

Two 13-year-old girls were found in a crashed car in Louisiana after having driven 145 miles from home (Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office)

Two Texas teenagers who ran away from home were found in Louisiana — having traveled some 145 miles through the night — after crashing a car into a tree.

A 13-year-old girl from Atlanta, Texas had been driving a Chevrolet sedan southbound on US-71 near the Natchitoches-Winn Parish line when she “apparently fell asleep,” Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

The car then traveled across the center line, exiting the road on the left side, and went through a ditch before ramming into a tree. A photo of the car, released by authorities, shows the Chevrolet badly damaged on its front left side, including missing a headlight.

Authorities reported to the scene around 5 a.m. Tuesday after receiving 911 reports of a single-vehicle crash. Two 13-year-old girls, neither of whom have been identified, were found in the car, the sheriff’s office said.

Two runaway 13-year-old girls were found in a wrecked car, having traveled more than 140 miles from Texas into Louisiana. (Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office)

One was suffering from minor non-life-threatening injuries. Emergency medical teams assessed the injured teen and released her, the authorities said.

The 13-year-olds were then taken from the scene of the crash to the sheriff’s office, where they were later released to their relatives.

It’s not immediately clear why they were running away. The girls said they were driving with no specific destination in mind, the sheriff’s office told The Independent.

The car they took belonged to a relative that did not want to pursue criminal charges, the sheriff’s office said, adding that Louisiana State Police cited the 13-year-old driver for careless operation of a vehicle and for having no driver’s license.

The case is currently under investigation.

The sheriff’s office said in a statement: “Deputies and Louisiana State Police continued to investigate why two 13-year-old juveniles from Texas would be traveling in a vehicle at 5:00am in the morning learning they were runaways from Atlanta, Texas.”