From the AP: “Neither the mother nor the daughter were wearing seat belts.” And the speedometer was stuck at 85 MPH.
Looks like the kid is lucky to get rid of that Mom.
http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-me-ruby15apr15.story
This story says she thought her mother was asleep and didn’t learn she had died until she caught a bit of a newsreport while at the hospital. The poor child.
She also claims it was her mother who directed her to get the noodles and gatorade for herself. I don’t know what to believe here. Five is young, but not a baby and if she said her mother was alive and coherent enough to direct her to the food, well–I’m leaning towards believing her. Either that, or we’ve got a situation where she projected her own survival instincts into her mother’s dead mouth. Ugh, I’ve gotta stop or I’ll be crying over this one again.
It is indeed the one I was thinking of. I Googled it earlier and found it. And 83 year old granny was stuck hanging upside down (held in place by her seatbelt) in a swamp. She collected rainwater in a plastic sheet. IIRC the squichiness of the swamp helped keep her car from being crushed on impact.
All around, she is one tough granny!
…sigh
One article I read suggested that Police believed mechanical failure may have been involved. And I’m not sure how they know the girl wasn’t buckled in given that 10 days passed before they found her. Maybe she let herself out?
Regardless, I’m a little disturbed by your comment Eve. Do you really think that because a kid’s mom might speed once in a while or maybe not buckle them in that they’d be better off orphaned? Because I gotta say, that’s pretty fucked up.
What I’m saying is that a mother who would speed while neither she nor her five-year-old daughter had seat belts on is a stupid bitch who never should have been allowed to be in charge of a child.
That’s pretty cold, Eve.
Eve, I think the point belladonna was trying to make was that maybe the little girl was buckled in, but unbuckled herself. Given what the car went through, I think this is the most likely scenario, because if she hadn’t been buckled, I don’t see how she would have survived the crash. I have a 4-year-old daughter that can unbuckle her seat belt.
We don’t yet know that was the case. Mechanical failure, which they are looking into could mean the brakes weren’t working, or the accelerator jammed.
Also, anyone who read belladonna’s link should note that there wasn’t much damage to the guardrail. The workers were replacing it for being worn, not recently having a car flatten it.
If she was speeding, and if she and her daughter were not buckled in, as the news story indicated, then she was a stupid bitch who had no business being in charge of a child.
Jeez, I don’t have kids–don’t even particularly like 'em–but damned if I would drive a car without having myself buckled up and any children in safety seats!