'No real excuse': P-plate driver's 'irresponsible' act lands him 20 demerit points
A provisional driver was slapped with a huge fine and received 20 demerit points on Christmas Day before offering police an excuse which did not satisfy them.
NSW Police pulled over a P1 licence driver in a Black Holden Captiva at 7am (local time) on Wednesday on Edwards Street in Moree in northern NSW.
When the driver was pulled over on the purpose of ‘random testing’, the person produced their provisional licence, but no P-plates were displayed on the back of the vehicle, according to Traffic and Highway Patrol Command’s Facebook post.
Police then discovered three children in the car who were either not restrained properly or not at all.
“A 2-year-old child was observed sitting in the middle of the rear seats with no seatbelt fitted at all,” police said on Facebook.
“The driver offered no real excuse other than, ‘We are going to get their car seats now’.”
The driver was issued numerous infringements relating to not restraining the children as prescribed and not displaying their P-plates.
Three of the infringements – all relating to not restraining the children – usually result in three demerit points, but during the double demerits period drivers are hit with six demerit points for the offence.
But double demerits do not relate to the infringement relating to the P-plates.
Over Christmas and the New Year, double demerits run for 13 days from December 20 until January 1.
Given the children’s safety was at risk, people were quite concerned in the comments of the Facebook post.
“The only thing you are doing when you have children in a car without proper restraints is putting that child at the greatest risk of being killed if you have an accident,” a Facebook user said.
One man described rather graphically how during his career as a paramedic he had seen plenty of injured or dead children who were unrestrained and involved in an accident.
“I still wake up having thoughts about them,” he said.
“So throw the book at all of them I say, people have no idea how many people they affect by their irresponsible actions.”
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