Sydney cop’s heartfelt move from seatbelt fines to free baby seats
A big-hearted highway patrol veteran who constantly found himself stopping young Western Sydney mums for child seat infringements soon found the practice more often came down to disadvantage rather than disobedience. So he decided to do something about it
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Jail WAGs slam ‘unfair’ COVID visit ban
- Illegal Black Lives Matter protesters face six months in jail
As a cop on the beat in Sydney’s west, Greg Donaldson got a little too used to pulling over young mothers who were driving their babies around without the correct child seat in the back.
The Highway Patrol Sergeant soon asked himself why this was such a regular occurrence in Mount Druitt and quickly drew a link between child restraint offences and disadvantaged families.
He realised that he could buy three child seats with the money from each fine he was dishing out — a pricey $350.
That was five years ago and Sgt Donaldson has now donated more than 240 car seats to struggling parents using the money raised from local businesses and NSW Police grants for Indigenous families.
He hopes the initiative can now be rolled out statewide after a successful pilot program with an Aboriginal health service in Dubbo.
Sgt Donaldson said seeing the reactions of needy parents — when they are given car seats instead of fines — was special because many of them could not afford to buy their own or were using second-hand seats that failed to meet tight safety regulations.
“The reactions range from stunned and they can’t say anything to crying and everything in between,” he said.
“Handing out fines doesn’t really address the safety problem in the first place, they’ve already committed the offence.
“If all we do is give a ticket out it doesn’t fix the problem.
“In fact, in some cases it can make it worse because they have to spend what they could spend on a car seat on paying off a fine and it creates all these other problems.”
To help roll out the program, Sgt Donaldson teamed up with local Aboriginal health services to help identify parents who needed assistance before they were pulled over by police. He also worked with Blacktown City Council road safety officer Fiona Frost, who offers a free car seat installation program.
Police Minister David Elliott said having grown up in Western Sydney, he saw a lot of disadvantaged families fall through the cracks.
“I would like all those people who call to de-fund the police to make a donation to this initiative because this is actually the sort of thing that police do that they will very rarely get the credit for,“ Mr Elliott said.
“This is like the ultimate act of charity as far as the police is concerned.
“I know it’s a common saying, but if it just saves one life, we’ve done the right thing.”
Mount Druitt’s Janaya Hickey — mother of one-year-old Lamyiah — was offered a new car seat as part of the program.
She said it was a great initiative. “They cost quite a lot and it’s good for the babies,” she said.