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Cape Town - On Thursday, Wheels24 reported on an Australian father who allowed his five-year-old son to perform burnouts.
Alex Dobson filmed his son performing a burnout in a Holden Commodore sedan.
He posted the video to Facebook. Australian police as well as Child Service Protection investigated Dobson, resulting his car being impounded.
Reader response
Wheels24 reader Henk Roux shares his views on the video: We've posted the video at the end of the article.
Henk said: A few things I don't understand, but first, two observations:
Firstly, when the tyres start to roll (or spin) the car doesn't move even a slight bit. It stays completely stationary. Normally, when doing a burnout the driver has to first get the rear tires spinning to loosen grip and then match sufficient brake force on the front wheels to stop the car from rolling forward.
READ: Why it's a bad idea to allow a 5-year-old to perform a burnout
That's impossible to achieve without some movement of the car at the start. This car did not move at all.
Secondly, it's clear from the video that the hood is slightly ajar.
Why he was safe
It is clear then that the kid is standing on the brakes before he even changes into drive. The only way to have done that is to completely disconnect the rear brakes from the booster (a makeshift line-lock), coupled with a smooth cement driveway (the slow spin-up of the tires). This kid wasn't going anywhere, and at best he also learnt about how a car's brakes are managed and set up.
There was absolutely no 'questionable parenting' here. The guy knew exactly what he was doing, and he was basically teaching his son the effects and purposes of the mechanical couplings of his car.
So, how do the police have any authority to impound the car if this happened on private property? Australia is more of a nanny state than I had it figured for.
See the Dobson's video below: