Malaysian boy, 12, drives car with young siblings inside, sparks police probe
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Initial police investigations found that the underage boy was driving a Perodua Viva car with his two younger siblings, aged six and four, inside the vehicle.
PHOTOS: SCREENGRAB FROM UPDATEINFO/X
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A 12-year-old Malaysian boy is in hot water after a video circulated online in which he is seen driving a car around his neighbourhood with his two younger siblings inside the vehicle, sparking public outcry and a police investigation.
The police said on July 30 they have interviewed the boy’s father, after the video of the incident went viral with more than one million views since it was uploaded on social media on July 29.
Sepang police chief Wan Kamarul Azran Wan Yusof said the authorities were alerted to the video at around 6.30pm on July 29.
He said the incident occurred at a residential area in the suburb of Puchong in Selangor at 8pm on July 28.
Initial police investigations found that the underage boy was driving a Perodua Viva car with his two younger siblings, aged six and four, inside the vehicle.
“They were joyriding in the neighbourhood,” Assistant Commissioner (AC) Wan Kamarul said in a statement.
He said the children’s father, who is the registered owner of the car, was called to the Sepang Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department office to have his statement recorded.
The 53-year-old man arrived at the department with his children at 11pm on July 29, added AC Wan Kamarul.
He said police were probing the matter under Section 39 (1) of the Road Transport Act for underage driving.
English-language daily New Straits Times reported that this was not the first time the children were seen driving around unaccompanied.
In the 90-second video, a white car is seen driving along a road in a housing estate.
It then shows a woman, who is off-camera, flagging the car to stop.
The underage driver winds down the car’s front passenger window and the woman asks for the ages of the boy and his siblings.
She also reprimands the underage driver, to which the boy responds by asking her to “go meet my father”.
In reply, the woman says she will lodge a police report.
The children are seen not wearing seat belts in the video.
Netizens who watched the video criticised the children’s parents for “bad parenting” and for the underage driver’s unrepentant attitude.
“Please take stern action against the parents. If this takes place overseas, the children will be put under welfare services because the parents allowed them to be put in dangerous situations,” said Ms Ticer Yati on social media platform X.
A netizen with the handle “ku-ching” said on X: “What a sad thing. Poor children being raised by parents who should have not been given the responsibility of raising a child, let alone three.”
Many also expressed worries over accidents that could happen.
“There are three children in the car. If there is an accident and they die, the parents will lose three children overnight. The same scenario if they hit people,” said SukaShiny on X.
This is not the first time young children were caught driving.
In 2020, a nine-year-old boy who was found driving a Proton Saga in Negeri Sembilan told the police his father had taught him to drive.
In June 2023, an 11-year-old boy and his father were arrested by police for underage driving after the boy drove his father’s Proton Saga in Selangor.
A 13-year-old boy in China took his father’s taxi
