Shane Warne, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Slater caught not wearing seat-belts in moving car
Australian legend Shane Warne, Michael Slater, and England star Kevin Pietersen have landed in trouble for not wearing seatbelts in a moving car during a visit to Hobart.
Tasmanian police say no special treatment will be given to the cricketers after a video emerged which shows them without their seat belts enjoying a drive through the city.
It was Warne actually who posted the video on November 14 on social networking site Facebook calling it "Ch 9 boys after day 3 in Hobart" while the trio was in town for the Australia versus South Africa Test match.
Also in the car were former Australian skipper and Channel Nine commentator Mark Taylor and his colleague Ian Healy who was a former Australian wicket-keeper. Both Healy and Mark were wearing their seatbelts.On Thursday, Tasmania Police Acting Inspector Ian Mathewson said the matter was "under investigation".
"We have taken a copy and have officers looking at it,” Mathewson was quoted by ABC.The officer said the driver can be penalized too for ferrying passengers who were not wearing seatbelts and added they were separate penalties for the passengers at fault.
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The driver and Mark Taylor face a $300 fine and will be given three points of demerit under the Tasmanian Law. Pietersen and Warne too can also be handed a $300 penalty. Mathewson has also revealed discretion can be applied to people who have not violated traffic rules on Tasmanian roads in the past three months.
He also said that such violators might also be left after handing a caution, adding that the fate of the star players would be determined on a "case by case basis" and they would not be treated any different than a common man.
Lastly, he added that the video sends a very wrong message since the police had just launched their Stay Safe seatbelt awareness campaign in October. As of yesterday’s afternoon, the video from Warne had over 4800 likes, 1200 comments, and 200 shares. It had also generated over 117,000 views.
This is not the first time Warne has run himself into trouble. He is quite famous for his sex scandals too. In the recent one which was revealed in March by The Sun, a woman had alleged that Warne pestered her with explicit messages after the pair met on a dating website.
For the on-field record Warne has 708 wickets from 145 Test matches.