Sint-Niklaas (Brussels Morning Newspaper): In Sint-Niklaas, police found five children in a car parked on a bike path. The driver, a woman without a valid license, was fined €1,600 for unsafe transport.
In Sint-Niklaas, police discovered a car parked on a bike path with its hazard lights flashing. Upon checking the vehicle, they found five children in the back seat, two hiding on the floor. This raised serious concerns for the officers about the situation.
How did a Sint-Niklaas mother face a €1,600 fine for driving kids?
The police decided to investigate further after finding the children in the car. They checked the driver’s details and discovered that the woman driving did not have a valid driver’s license. This raised concerns about the safety of the children packed in the car and legal issues because the driver was not authorized to operate a vehicle.
The case was brought before a police judge, where the woman’s lawyer explained that she took the car to drive the children to school. The lawyer pointed out that she intended to get the kids to school, but acknowledged that driving without a license is a serious offense, especially when it risks children’s safety.
It has been said that the family has seven children, and the woman’s husband had a driving ban so that he couldn’t drive. Normally, the kids take the bus to school, but since they were late one morning. The lawyer said the kids hid in the back of the car because they were scared of the police. Now, the woman has a valid driver’s license, and the family bought a bigger car with seven seats. The police judge fined her 1,600 euros, but 600 euros of that fine was suspended for three years.