Driving ban for mother who let children hang out of windows
A MOTHER let her two young children poke their heads out of her car windows as she drove, a court heard.
Former probation officer Stefanie Oakley told police who stopped her that her son and daughter, aged six and seven, were having ‘a bit of fun’.
The 42-year-old claimed the children, who were not wearing seatbelts, were not in danger because she was driving slowly along a high street, and said no one would have been concerned if it had been in an earlier era.
Witnesses spotted the boy and girl perched on the rear window sills of her Skoda Octavia. They were leaning out and holding on to the roof rack.
Oakley, who runs children’s crafts groups in the Peak District town of Chapel- en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, was charged with dangerous driving.
This week she was banned from the road for two years – and narrowly avoided an immediate jail sentence.
Magistrates in Stockport were told that Oakley, who pleaded guilty, was spotted by police and passers-by as she drove to and from a cafe in Chapel-enle-Frith on July 26 with the children hanging from the car.
Sonia Alford, prosecuting, said: ‘This defendant was seen on not one but two occasions. As she exited the restaurant, she was seen by staff and diners with her children sitting on the window sill of her car. As she pulls away, she is seen by a police officer and he shouts for her to stop. He witnesses her drive about 60 metres.
‘He asked what she was doing and she replied it was “only a bit of fun”. She continued to say this in her police interview.’ Oakley told officers that she had previously allowed the children to travel the same way while on holiday at a campsite abroad and they had pestered her to do it again.
Miss Alford told magistrates the risk of injury to the children had been significant. ‘If she had hit a pothole, the children could have fallen and been hit by another car,’ she said.
Oakley, who homeschools her son and daughter, was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail, suspended for a year. The court heard that she and her partner had previously lived in India and that may have influenced her decision to allow the children to travel in such a manner without seatbelts.
Andrew Stewart, defending, said: ‘She was replicating behaviour from abroad. In another era this might not have been as concerning as it is now. She thought about what she was allowed to do when she was little … and didn’t think of the risks.’
Oakley, of Hathersage, Derbyshire, was also ordered to pay £200 costs and complete 120 hours’ unpaid work. She told magistrates she regretted saying the incident was ‘a bit of fun’.
‘It was really awful what I did,’ she said. ‘I am sorry and it was really stupid. I feel terrible about putting my children in danger.
‘I am an intelligent person but I just didn’t think about the consequences.’