Teens fined for windscreen washing in traffic

Two Wellington teens who stepped out into traffic to wash car windows have been fined. File photo / Thinkstock

Two teens have been fined under a little-used law for stepping out into traffic to wash car windows in Wellington.

Madison King and Caleb Taranchokov, both 19, pleaded guilty in Wellington District Court this morning to charges of being an unauthorised person on a road.

Police said the young men stepped on to the road in suburban Newtown on August 25 with bottles and window wipers, offering to clean car windows.

Judge Robert Wolff said it was a dangerous activity and drivers could be distracted and feel intimidated.

He noted that pedestrians in Wellington treated crossing signs as "optional".

Judge Wolff fined them $100 each as well as court costs, and granted a police order to destroy their cleaning materials.

At the hearing, a man in the public gallery interrupted submissions from King's lawyer, Philippa Sullivan, to yell out "God loves New Zealand" before leaving the courtroom.

The convictions come after a string of accidents in which Wellington pedestrians have been hit by cars, most recently on Monday, when a woman was seriously hurt when she was hit by a car in the central city.