DRIVER BUCKLES UP BEER. NOT HIS CHILD

An Australian motorist has been fined for putting a seatbelt around a case of beer instead of a five-year-old passenger.

Police who pulled over the man's car on the Ross highway, near the outback town of Alice Springs, found the child sitting unrestrained in the back of the vehicle.

Four adults were in the car, two in the front seats and two in the back. The carton of beer, which contained 30 bottles, was strapped in between the two adults in the back. The child was sitting in the lump in the centre, unrestrained.