Booze before babies: Aussie driver charged for putting seatbelt on beer instead of children

A driver in Western Australia has been charged for sacrificing the safety of children by securing cartons of beer with seat belts intended for passengers.

Broome Police pulled over the man during a traffic stop on the Great Northern Highway and found children, including a baby less than a year old, sitting on the laps of adult passengers and in the car’s foot wells, while the beer sat on the seats, strapped in.

Media reports citing police said the 27-year-old was charged with “no authority to drive and failure to restrain a child.”

Yet, the incident was hardly surprising to  Kimberley District Superintendent Allan Adam, who told ABC News that they do have “problems up here in the Kimberley.”

“It shows some of the attitudes of some of our road users in the way they see their priorities.”

Adam also expressed concern over the number of motorists driving on suspended licences and those who do not bother to buckle up themselves or insist that their passengers do so, noting that in a large number of cases those passengers are kids.