A Private Legal practitioner has reminded the motoring public that allowing children to sit in the front seat of cars while driving, breaches section 14 of the Road Traffic Act, 2004(Act 683).

According to Act 683, "carrying of children less than 5-years old in the front seat of cars and motorbikes can attract a fine or imprisonment for not more than six months.

Mr Theophilus Donkor said, “so long as you drive a car and a child is in the car and he or she sits at the right-hand side of the driver and that child is 5-years or less, you have committed an offence. Once you are driving with a child in the car, that child should automatically be at the back seat otherwise you have committed an offence."

According to Mr Donkor, drivers are not supposed to face any form of interference while on a journey as that could cause accidents.

“That offence is punishable by law. At times we see parents carrying children even on their laps while driving, probably because the child asked to sit on them but it is an offence prescribed by the law,” he told host Joseph Ackah Blay on Joy News' The Law', Show Sunday, July 11.

He also mentioned that a driver can become a danger to other road users if they permit their children to sit by them to distract their attention from driving.

Mr Theophilus Donkor therefore advised against that.