Mr. Alex Dobson let his son, Riley, do a burnout in their driveway, and posted the video on his Facebook account. From there, the clip became viral with 49,000 shares, and the reactions came pouring, but they did not praise the skill of the child.
Instead, the father was labeled by some as irresponsible after letting the child behind the wheel of a car with the engine running, and also encouraging the kid to perform a burnout.
While the Holden Commodore was generating a cloud of smoke, which means that the burnout was done correctly, the proud father praised the boy, 9News.au reports.
The problem was that the child was unattended in the vehicle, as well as the moral issue of teaching a five-year-old kid how to do a burnout. Many concerned people feared that the child may attempt to repeat the feat alone another day, and that a tragedy could happen if the car got out of control.
As some of you know, performing a burnout involves touching the brake just enough to keep the vehicle still, while the gas must be applied thoroughly so that the wheels keep spinning, and eventually generate smoke. For most adults, these actions can be done safely, especially if done in a private area, and without any obstacle in front of the vehicle.
The safety and parenting issues appear when the stunt is performed by a child that is only attended by a parent with a video camera, and with no visible safety precautions present.
The burnout would not have been as outrageous if the father sat beside the child in the vehicle, while their camera was placed outside to film the whole scene.
Since the event took place on a private road, but with the possibility of open traffic, the authorities towed the father’s car, which will be checked if it is roadworthy.
Australia has anti-hoon laws, but things get complicated when they did not happen on public roads. However, since it occurred in a gated community, the father is not in the clear, because it is not the same as the family backyard.
The issue at hand is that the child could have released his left foot off the brake pedal and sent the car driving at a high rate of acceleration towards an obstacle.
This could have caused a tragedy, and the dad that claims that a “car addiction stops a drug addiction” could not have prevented the event if all he had was a camera in his hands.
