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An Alkimos man has been charged with reckless driving after footage emerged of a toddler behind the wheel of a ute and steering it through suburban streets.
WA Police allege a 30-year-old man uploaded video footage to social media on Friday showing a three-year-old child unrestrained on his lap while he was driving a Toyota Hilux.
The child appeared to have control of steering the vehicle.
Police attended an address in Morley on Saturday and arrested the male.
He is due to appear before Joondalup Magistrates Court on October 2.
In the video, the male driver can be heard laughing and saying “look where you’re going, don’t crash” while the child steers the car along a suburban road.
The car drifts back and forth across the road before pulling up at the front of a residential address.
“Oh, we made it, a three-year-old driving a car!,” he said.
Road Policing Operations Division Superintendent Michael Dalla-Costa said the vision was “deeply concerning”.
“Every parent and caregiver has a responsibility to keep children safe. What we have seen in this vision is deeply concerning because it appears to show a very young child being allowed to control a moving vehicle,” he said.
“Children rely on adults to make safe decisions on their behalf. A vehicle is not a toy, and allowing a child to steer a moving vehicle, particularly if not properly restrained, can have serious consequences.
“When people watch footage like this, it is easy to focus on what happened. We also need to think about what could have happened. One unexpected movement, a child running onto the road, a cyclist, a pedestrian, or a simple mistake could have ended in tragedy.”
Dalla-Costa said he wondered if the adult responsible considered what the impact would have been if the vehicle lost control or was involved in a crash.
“The child would have been vulnerable to serious injury. It makes me wonder if the adult responsible, considered what the impact of this would be on their family, witnesses and the wider community,” he said.
“Road safety starts with personal responsibility. Adults are expected to protect children, not place them in situations where they are exposed to unnecessary danger.”
Government minister Matthew Swinbourn told 9News Perth on Saturday he was appalled by the vision.
“This is just ridiculous. There’s no circumstance in which this behaviour is ever acceptable,” he said.
“I think it’s to be condemned in the strongest terms possible. There’s no defence.”
Kidsafe WA chief executive Scott Phillips echoed similar sentiments.
“That is concerning. We don’t know what’s going to happen within the car, but we also don’t know what’s going to happen outside of it with other drivers.
“The child sitting right in front of an airbag.”
Road Policing Investigations are investigating this incident and ask witnesses to come forward and assist investigators.
“The overwhelming majority of parents and carers do the right thing every day. Incidents like this serve as an important reminder that safety must always come first, no matter how short the journey or how harmless a decision might seem at the time,” Dalla-Costa said.
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