Debate sparks over whether Bluey’s mum Chilli broke the law in the TV show’s massive ‘The Sign’ season finale
Hundreds of Bluey fans wondered if the Heeler pup’s mother, Chilli, broke a traffic rule in the season three finale.
In the special 28-minute episode of the animated children’s show, which reached 2.28 million viewers in Australia, Chilli and the four pups search for Bluey’s godmother Frisky.
The four youngest children were put in car seats in the back, while seven-year-old Bluey sat in the front.
Queensland police have shared an image on Facebook to test Australians’ knowledge of whether it is legal to drive with a young child in the front passenger seat.
“You know your rules of the road, and now is your chance to prove it,” the message read.
Bluey fans were left wondering if mom Chilli broke the law by letting Bluey sit in the front seat. Under Queensland law, children aged four to seven can only sit in the front seat if all other seats are occupied by children under seven
‘Chilli has three children in the back seat and her seven-year-old Bluey sat in the front. Can Chilli be fined for this? For real life?’
In the episode before Bluey jumps into the front seat, Chilli checks the law on her phone and reads it out loud. She also makes sure that all children have their seat belts on.
And luckily she checked, because a police officer stopped her thinking she had broken a rule.
According to Queensland lawChildren aged four to seven years may only sit in the front seat if all other seats are occupied by children under the age of seven.
Babies and children up to four years old are not allowed to sit in the front seat.
If a vehicle has only one row of seats, children of any age can sit in the front seat as long as they are properly restrained.
Despite this, Queensland Transport and Main Road Queensland advise that children under the age of 12 are always safest in the back seat.
In the episode before Bluey jumps into the front seat, Chilli checks the law on her phone and reads it out loud. She also makes sure that all children have their seat belts on
“The type of child seat you install will depend mainly on the age of the child, but you may also need to consider the size of the child,” according to the Queensland government website.
The decision to include and outline a law was praised by viewers, but some debated whether Bluey should have been in a booster seat.
Legally, a booster seat was not required, but for added safety, she had to sit in an untethered booster seat in the front seat.
“I think it’s great that they made sure she looked up the rule and that the officer was trained on a law he should have known. Chilli wasn’t exactly comfortable with it, but due to these one-off circumstances, it had to be done,” one fan wrote on Facebook.
‘Legal, but far from best safety practice. Children must sit in the back until at least the age of twelve,” says another.
‘What a great way to start a conversation about the rules of the road! Well done,” a third added.
Someone else tagged a friend and said: ‘Learning the rules of the road with Bluey, genius.’
‘I like Bluey, it gives us really useful information. This is what I will show my kids, not those stupid crap cartoons,” someone else wrote.