Thursday, 26 March 2009 - 1:07pm |
National News

Officer runs out of room in his ticket book

1 min read

So at odds with the driving regulations was one Hamilton grandmother that an officer ran out of room in his ticket book at a joint Police- Accident Compensation Corporation child car restraint checkpoint in the City this morning.

Sergeant Phil Ruddell of the Hamilton Strategic Traffic Unit said the 38-year-old woman was stopped at a checkpoint in Fairfield.

"She was found to be driving with her 18-month-old grandchild in an untethered car seat in the front of the car while her three and four year old children were sitting in the back with just seat belts on and her six-year-old child was not restrained at all."

"To make matters worse the woman was breaching the conditions of her learner licence by driving with passengers and she was behind the wheel of an unwarranted, unregistered car."

The woman faces about $2000 worth of fines but she was not alone with over 40 other drivers issued infringement notices for car restraint related issues as well.

Mr Ruddell said Police are not happy with the number of non-compliant drivers however the majority have the opportunity to have their fines cleared.

"These checkpoints are about the safety of children under five being transported in cars. In most cases drivers are given a 14 day compliance notice and if they can show that within that time they've purchased or hired a car seat, or remedied a fault, then their fine is waived.

"The priority is about protecting the child, not revenue gathering and we hope getting such a notice will serve as a sufficient enough shock to get drivers to comply."

The objective of the joint checkpoints is to raise compliance levels of car restraint use for children under five from the current 65 per cent to at least 75 per cent within Hamilton City.

"At the end of the day the cost is just too high for us not to protect these young children," said Mr Ruddell.

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