An appeal has been made to parents and guardians to be more cautious and responsible when transporting children in motor vehicles.
Senior Sergeant Kenny McBurnie reminded motorists – during his daily appearance on the Observer AM show – that children should not be sitting in the front seat of any vehicle, let alone in the driver’s seat, whether or not the automobile is parked.
“We have young children sitting in the driver’s seat of your vehicle. Sometimes, the engine is running and you have them there sitting and playing around. It is not something for them to play with; it is not a toy and so you should refrain from doing that.
“You should make sure that they understand that sitting behind that wheel comes with responsibilities and, of course, they should not be sitting there until they reach the age of 18 and they are the holder of a driver’s licence.
“So, I am appealing to parents [because] what you think may never go wrong always goes wrong,” McBurnie said.
From Monday, hundreds of vehicles with students on board will be traversing the nation’s roadways as the ‘most normal’ school year since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic gets underway.
This prompted McBurnie to reiterate his point about practising proper safety measures while navigating the nation’s highways and byways.
He spoke further on some of the issues that can arise if children are irresponsibly allowed to sit behind the wheels of vehicles.
“Trust me, children watch, they pay close attention and they mimic some of the things that we do, so we have to be careful when we allow them to sit behind the wheel because, believe me, one of these days they are going to pull the lever that they see you pull all the time and something is going to happen and you are going to be held accountable.
“We are appealing to you if you have children with you, ensure that they are supervised. Do not leave your engine running because if you do, the likelihood of one child going behind the wheel will most likely happen.
“So again, parents, drivers, we have to exercise some level of responsibility when we have young children riding with us because we know they do not think like adults and so, we are expected to think for them,” he added.
The new school year officially starts on September 5 for students, while teachers are already on the job, effective this week.