KEY POINTS:
Parents are being warned they are open to prosecution if their children become involved in traffic incidents while riding motorcycles on public roads.
The warning comes after an eight-year-old boy on a motorbike was seriously hurt after colliding with a car towing a boat at Murupara in the Bay of Plenty last week.
He was flown by the BayTrust rescue helicopter to Rotorua Hospital and is understood to be in a stable condition.
Bay of Plenty road policing manager Kevin Taylor said young people riding motorcycles on public roads was a problem that flared up from time to time.
"If parents do not exercise the parental control that they should, crashes are going to continue to happen," he said.
"In situations where culpability and liabilities are factors - for whomever - they get investigated."
A Murupara police spokesman said today no charges would be laid over last week's incident, but in similar situations there were avenues where prosecutions of parents could result.
Murupara Community Board member Arlene Tanirau said up to 30 children in the area drove "motorised toys" on the roads without parents taking any responsibility.
The parents often failed to provide safety gear and allowed them to "ride around willy-nilly out of sight", she told the Whakatane Beacon.
Ms Tanirau suggested setting up a track or park so the children had somewhere to ride legally.
- NZPA
