Sophie was two years old when a car careered into her Day Care centre three years ago, burst into flames and set her alight, leaving her with 3rd degree burns to nearly 90% of her little body. She lost both her feet and her fingers and an ear, and was still in her burns ‘body suit’ being treated for her injuries when she was critically injured in a car accident AGAIN.
I heard this on the news yesterday, and all I could do was weep for the poor little kid having to go through more than a lifetime’s pain in the space of too few years.
My thoughts and wishes mean nothing in the big scheme of things, but they’re all I’ve got to give.
Soft hugs to Sophie and her family from kambuckta.
Yeah, this is just awful. This kid is single-handedly improving safety in Australia, though. Didn’t they implement guardrails in front of childcare centres after the first accident? Now, maybe they’ll improve that pedestrian crossing that, by all reports, is incredibly dangerous.
Anyway, I feel horrible for her and her family. Also, her carer who was pushing the pram when she was hit. And, you know, I also feel awful for the guy who hit her. What a horrible thing to have to live with.
I do too in a way, but then again, he is eighty years old. I know the rights of the elderly to drive is a hot button topic on these boards, so all I can say is what Sophie’s father said, ‘I’d rather not comment about that.’
Apart from everything else which I agree with totally, I also agree VERY totally with your last comment. The poor bastard who knocked Sophie was 80 years old, and has been charged with all sorts of negligence offences. All well and good, but I feel terribly sorry for him too. It was a dodgy crossing. He has to go to sleep and wake up in the mornings knowing he’s responsible for hurting a child who was already hurting, badly, from a previous MVA.
I wasn’t living in Australia at the time, but wasn’t the person driving the car in the childcare centre accident elderly, also? I saw a news program thing on it about a year ago and I can’t remember the details.
Not that it matters now really for Sophie and her family. I honestly hope this doesn’t turn into a witch-hunt for older drivers though. Hey, in Melbourne we had a young African guy who churned into the playground of a primary school, injuring many kids especially one youngster who needed an amputation of his leg. Doesn’t mean that all Africans are dangerous drivers does it?
Well, from memory, the first guy was sixty or so. Not so much of a big deal.
It’s a tough debate, because it only takes one healthy, bright, alert, and intelligent eighty year-old driver to say, ‘Oi! How dare you question my right to drive?’ And he or she would have a very sound point. This is what makes it so bloody difficult.
But the facts are, there have been multiple incidents in my city alone in recent years in which elderly drivers have caused accidents through confusion or panic. Two of them within a year or so drove down the steps of underground railway stations, mistaking the entrance for that of a carpark. People have been run over because they’ve hit the gas instead of the brake.
I don’t feel nervous when I see an African guy in a car. I do feel nervous when I see the little fedora and the clenched white knuckles of an older person driving along Parramatta Road in the middle lane in peak hour in the '75 Toyota Crown at 15mph.
Well, on general principles requiring someone to take a brief re-test every five years starting the first time they get their licence wouldn’t be such a bad idea. There are plenty of younger drivers who have forgotten some of the basics, or are unaware of changes to the law.
It’s amazing how much some people can endure. I sure hope that this last accident turns out to be the last bit of bad luck that family has to deal with for a long time!