A sudden craze of teenagers riding in the closed boots of cars has Alexandra police worried and warning the passengers, and the drivers of the vehicles, are courting disaster.
Two vehicles stopped in the town by police in the past fortnight, the most recent one yesterday, had a teenager being transported in the closed boot. Both vehicles were being driven by teenagers.
"It's happened twice lately and that's two times too many. If this is a trend, we need to stop it now before someone gets hurt or killed," Constable Dave Greaves said.
"We have to get the message across about how dangerous this practice is.
"Firstly, in the case of a collision, there could be serious injuries to the person in the boot.
Secondly, in older vehicles, the boot seal might be worn, and so the person in the boot runs the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, if the gas gets into the boot area."
Both the driver and the passenger in the boot could be issued an infringement notice, which would result in a fine of $150.
If there was a collision and the person travelling in the boot was injured, the driver could also face charges, Const Greaves said.
• A two-car collision in Dunedin on January 14, 2008, claimed the life of 11-year-old Simon Paul Charlton, who was riding in the closed boot of one of the vehicles.
His friend, Harrison Kemp, aged 12 at the time, who was also riding in the boot, was seriously injured. Both boys were flung from the vehicle. The driver of the car, Simon's father, David Charlton, was later discharged without conviction on a charge of driving carelessly.
The driver of the second vehicle in the crash, Alec Benjamin Porter, of Auckland, was sentenced in the Dunedin District Court on November 2009 to two years in prison for causing Simon's death by driving at a dangerous speed.
