Children Left Behind the Wheel of Running Cars

This is a sight we unfortunately see in Oman on occasion. A child left alone and unsupervised in a car with the key in the ignition and the engine running. I know one occasion at one Select Gas Station stop that a car was put from neutral into drive and went straight through the wall. Because a kid was left inside.

MOP is a generally safe driver by standards here. He doesn't cut people off, he wears a seatbelt, he even owns a car seat for babies. But he doesn't have a booster seat, and does not strictly enforce children of other people that we know to wear seatbelts in our car. So one day we were driving with a little boy under the age of the three in the back. He screamed too much when you tried to make him wear a seatbelt because most Omani families don't make children or babies wear seatbelts so of course they won't like being strapped in. MOP was only going for a quick drive so he didn't force the issue. But at the corner there was an accident ahead so he had to slam on the break suddenly. The little boy went flying into the front, and bashed the gear shift stick into another gear, which fortunately, didn't cause the car to move forward into the accident, or reverse into those behind the car, but it DID damage the transition and could so easily have been worse.

People, buy your babies car seats! When they are too big for them, booster seats, they sell them at mothercare shop in City Center Al Muwalla. And get your kids used to wearing belts. You don't want them to become flying missiles through the event of an accident, do you? And don't leave children under a responsible age alone in the car with the engine running. Most cars have the option of leaving the AC and radio on without have the engine powered. Please, be careful.