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Traffic and kids: Uruguyans’ carelessness of their children.

Last February, my husband and I went to Uruguay to spend our vacations on the Uruguayan ocean coast. We went by motorcycle and stayed on the road about nine days. Uruguay is a friendly country, the people who live there are naturally happy and welcoming. We´ve felt very nice about travelling there.

But – it always has a “but” – I noticed a huge problem with the Uruguayans. It is a danger because it involves the care. Or carelessness of the kids in that country, specially on the roads.

Once we went there by motorcycle and by ourselves, we had the great opportunity to be in contact with that people and observed some behaviors that we couldn´t had if we had travelled by a car or an excursion. Because of this, we´d seen unbelieveble things which proved the carelessness with Uruguayan children.

For example, one day I saw a man who was driving his car with two little children: one of them might have two years old and the other, three or four. Despite of this, both children were sitting in the front seat, and the two-year-old one, was sitting in his daddy´s legs, “helping” drive. No one in that car had the seat belts. In general, in Uruguay, the kids sit on the front seat of the car and there is no problem with the police.

Another situation which drove me crazy was the kids in motorcycles. It´s common to see many children traveling motorcycles, without helmet or another security. The adults who carry the kids never wear helmets and drive without shoes or wear only mules. In Brazil, it´s forbidden to ride without helmet and wear mules.

Sometimes, we saw two or three kids on a moto; another time, I saw a man riding a moto with one hand while the other one was holding a baby! I panicked! In Punta del Diablo, at the begginig of our trip, we saw a man driving a motorcycle and the kid, who was sitting in his father´s legs, was sleeping!

In summary, I would like to say that I have no knowledge about the laws on driving motorcycles with kids in Uruguay. But I know that children need a lot of care and all the attention from the adults who drive the cars or the motorcycles.