Vehicle Passenger Restraints

Beyond unacceptable is how Waikato Police describe a situation where a child was found asleep in the floor well of a car while two other children slept unrestrained on the back seat of the car.

District Road Policing Manager, Inspector Freda Grace, said a the incident began when a Police Dog Patrol stopped a car on Wairere Drive during a routine vehicle stop early yesterday morning.

Mrs Grace said the dog handler was taken aback when he noticed a two-year-old girl asleep between the legs of a passenger in the floor well of the car.

"The child's mother explained the girl was there because she had been crying while another two children, aged four and five-years-old, were lying unrestrained, asleep on the rear seat of the car.

"Given this incident comes just two weeks after the death of another unrestrained baby who died following a crash in the King Country, to find three unrestrained children is totally unacceptable."

Mrs Grace said while enforcement action resulted in from the vehicle being stopped the only way to really prevent road trauma was to change public perceptions on what is, and what is not, acceptable.

"What is at stake is just to precious to gamble on, everyone but especially our most vulnerable young children, need to be appropriately restrained at all times when in a vehicle, full stop."

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