The parents of an Australian child left a paraplegic by a car accident will face charges of criminal neglect for not ensuring the boy was restrained in a proper car seat, police said Sunday

SYDNEY (AFP) - The parents of an Australian child left a paraplegic by a car accident will face charges of criminal neglect for not ensuring the boy was restrained in a proper car seat, police said Sunday.

South Australian police allege that at the time of the accident in April the two-year-old boy was sitting on his mother's lap in the back seat of the family car, which was being driven by his father.

"The boy was not properly restrained in an approved child restraint and severely damaged his spine in the crash, the result of which means he is now a paraplegic with no active movement in his lower limbs," police said in a statement.

The mother and father are due to appear in court on December 9 to answer a charge of criminal neglect of a child -- an offence that carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment when a child is seriously injured.

Police said criminal neglect generally occurred when a child suffered serious harm as a result of an unlawful act, often from abuse, and this case was believed to be the first time it had been applied to car restraints.
Under South Australian law, babies under the age of six months must travel in rear-facing seats in cars while children up the age of seven can only ride in cars if they are strapped into child seats with the appropriate restraints




this poor little boy this proves again why the mcanns should have been charged with neglect imagine if the twins had got hurt or worse while being alone????????

I get mad with people driving about with unrestrained kids in the car. Even when they are in the back, they are launched like a missile in the event of an accident. That father is lucky HE is alive! Sad story, will happen again. Stupidity and irresponsibility are incurable in this instance.

With regard to the McCanns - remember when there were rumblings about them possibly being charged with neglect in Portugal? This would be around April/May 2008 IIRC. Gerry's response was something along the lines of "they have no new information so why now when they didn't charge us before?" Almost as if he believed she would have to be shown to have died for them to have any right to criticize him FFS! But this is, after all, the responsible parent who declared "In hindsight we made a mistake and we will never leave the children alone again." Isn't hindsight wonderful when it means you don't have to say SORRY?

I have only just begun to carry my now 4 year-old grandson in my car. Since he's not here very often (about once a month) it wasn't worth buying a car seat, but I managed to acquire one on Freecycle from a couple who had bought it and only used it in a hire car for a holiday. I wasn't allowed to let my grandson use the seat until my daughter had inspected it, though, and I am pleased that she is such a careful mother. If there is no appropriate seat or restraint in a vehicle, children should not be traveling in it. For me, it's a simple as that.

I see stupid parents do things alot.....like letting their child jump up and down on the back seat with NO car seat or even when their is a car seat they cant be bothered to use it.

kitti wrote:I see stupid parents do things alot.....like letting their child jump up and down on the back seat with NO car seat or even when their is a car seat they cant be bothered to use it.

Kitti, I think that sometimes the problem is that parents are not too good at getting the child into the car seat. Most kids will complain at times about sitting in the car seat, but you've just got to find ways to get that rigid body to bend in the middle and ignore the screams! Parents who give in, and I've seen this happen, are obviously not acting in the child's best interests.

If you believed McCanns really neglected their children then they should have been charged with neglect. But, wouldn't you have to be certain that they were not using the neglect issue as a smokescreen to escape charges for something far more serious?