Seatbelts for a 5 km/hr Santa parade

NewstalkZB report:

Santa and his elves must wear seatbelts for Christchurch’s Christmas parade following new health and safety advice – a move labelled by some city councillors as “woke nonsense” and “over the top”. 

Christchurch’s Christmas Show Parade director Jason Reekers said an audit of the parade’s floats recommended installing seatbelts on some of them. 

This included Santa in his sleigh and the elves, Reekers confirmed. Other floats have also had safety bars installed. 

Reekers said there was an “extremely low” safety risk but said no one had fallen off a float in the 75 years the parade has been running. 

“With today’s health and safety rules and with WorkSafe the way they are, once we’ve had something brought to our attention, if we don’t show that we’ve done mitigation, then we’ll be held liable. 

“So, we kind of get put between a rock and a hard place.” 

This is the consequence of a safety at all costs mantra.

It is inane that a flat which moves at 5 km/hr needs seatbelts. Are they worried one of the fake reindeer will panic and storm off?