Melbourne - Australian police have charged an unlicensed driver who apparently chose to buckle up cartons of beer instead of using the car's seat belts on unrestrained children.
Western Australian police made the bizarre discovery after pulling the 27-year-old over while patrolling a section of highway outside of Broome, a well-known regional city. Police claim several children, including a baby, were sitting on the laps of adult passengers and packed into the vehicle's foot wells, while boxes were piled onto the seats and strapped in.
Kimberley District Police superintendent, Allan Adam, said the incident encapsulated two of the biggest issues confronting the outback region and broader Australia: alcohol and road safety. “We do have problems up here in the Kimberley,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday. “It shows some of the attitudes of some of our road users in the way they see their priorities. “We are doing our best to stamp it out through enforcement but we are also about to embark on public education, which is obviously needed in remote communities.”
Police said they suspected the man, whose licence had already been suspended, might have been travelling to dry Aboriginal communities attempting to re-sell the alcohol for an inflated price, an increasingly common practice in the area known as “sly grogging”.
“This is the third traffic action we've had at that location with significant amounts of alcohol being conveyed along that route,” Adam said on Friday. “We've also got some serious concerns around the number of people that are driving on suspended licences and also not restraining themselves and their passengers. “And unfortunately, on a large number of occasions, those passengers are kids.”
The unnamed father has been charged with a range of offences, including five counts of driving without a license and two liquor-related offences.
Xinhua