By NZPA and STAFF REPORTER
The Automobile Association is worried about remote devices which can start and stop cars.
The Land Transport Safety Authority is investigating the gadgets but does not know how many are in the country.
The devices are under scrutiny after a pregnant woman was hit and injured two days before Christmas by a car started by such an electronic gizmo.
The driverless vehicle, apparently left in gear, bounded on to the pavement on the North Shore, crashing into Miranda Robbins, 30.
She was 38-weeks pregnant and had her two-year-old daughter with her at the Albany Mega-Centre when she heard a roar and saw a four-wheel-drive heading straight for her.
It struck her and a passerby had to smash the window to get it to stop. She had an emergency caesarean the following day.
Weekend Herald inquiries have found the remote starter kits involve a simple key-ring sized transmitter and a receiver.
They have been installed in New Zealand for at least the past 10 years, and can be done for about $300.
There are no regulations and safety practices are up to the installer.
Some companies, like the Installer Services Group which has installed 750 such systems since 1997, will only put them in automatic cars where they would only work where the car was in park or neutral.
Others, like Dynatron, will not install them at all.
Managing director Ron Campbell said the devices were "absolute rubbish". They were really for use on freezing cold mornings but were being installed here as "toys".
He was "shocked and appalled" to hear the system had been installed in a manual vehicle.
AA public affairs director George Fairbairn said he was unaware that remote starting devices were being used in New Zealand.
However, he said the AA had studied the devices two years ago when they were investigating remote door-locking devices.
Ms Robbins was told the car had a remote start-up mechanism installed the day before the accident.
Police have told her and the driver they expected to lay charges.
She is on crutches and is having physiotherapy.
Doctors say it will take at least three months for the fractures to heal.
Her son Flynn was delivered the day after the accident because doctors feared blood clots caused by Mrs Robbins' injuries could endanger his health.
If his head had been engaged in her pelvis, it would have been worse.
"The doctors insinuated that the baby could have died," she said.
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