Police are warning drivers to consider the potential consequences of risky driver behaviour, after two incidents that could have ended badly on the North Shore yesterday.
At around 11am, Sgt Brett Campbell-Howard was patrolling in Beach Haven, when he noticed an SUV with a 6-metre trampoline that was only loosely tied on by a thin hessian rope.
The trampoline was hanging about 1.5 metres over each side of the car, which was travelling around 20 k’s an hour.
“If he’d been going any faster the tramp would have fallen off. The driver said he was moving house and the new home was only 640 metres away, he said it was too much trouble to take the trampoline apart when he wasn’t going that far” says Sgt Brett Campbell-Howard, Waitemata Police.
“After I explained that the fine for an insecure load was $600 and that the trampoline could have easily come off in a gust of wind and hit a car or pedestrian, the driver agreed that his method of moving it was probably not the best way. He unloaded the trampoline and made other arrangements to transport it” says Sgt Campbell-Howard.
Three hours later in Paremoremo, Police received a report of a child driving a car. A mum was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, with her 9 year-old driving in the driver’s seat. They’d been on a residents-only public access road, used by other cars and considered to be a public road.
The mum admitted letting her daughter drive and said she was going to pull the handbrake on if her daughter lost control.
After the officer explained the dangers of allowing a 9 year-old to drive a car, the mum was given a warning.
“These are two events within only a few hours of each that could have ended disastrously. We know that accidents happen but so many are preventable, and going to fatalities or serious injury cases where it’s obvious that the situation could have easily been prevented are the most frustrating jobs for emergency services. Please, if you’re on a public road that is being used by other motorists, think about what could go wrong before you do something risky” says Sgt Campbell-Howard.
ENDS
Media: Sorry there are no photos available.
Beth Bates/NZ Police