Toddler's car seat falls out of car and is unharmed and rescued.

[TRC4941]

@Machine_Elf

The car door wasn’t just closed improperly, it never latched at all. It’s got a two-stage latch, and as long as it’s latched at all, it won’t open unless someone pulls the handle.

Cars also include dashboard warnings about doors that aren’t closed properly. The mother was clueless on numerous counts:

-she didn’t properly secure the seat with the car’s seat belt.

-she didn’t close the passenger door properly - not even enough to engage the first stage of the latch.

-she didn’t notice any wind noise or rattling of the door while driving.

-she didn’t notice any dashboard light/warning indicating that there was a door ajar.

-she didn’t notice the much larger noise of the door swinging wide open (or the view of it in her side mirror) and the kid tumbling out as she rounded the corner, even though the door remained open as she drove a block down the road. In fact, she drove several blocks down the road; at the end of the 40-second video clip, she still had not stopped.

Her lack of situational awareness beggars belief and justifies some kind of legal sanction to get her attention.

YES! All of these. It just doesn’t make sense that she didn’t hear the baby fall out of the car. And it looks like the door swung shut after the baby fell out. Surely she would have heard something. I can hear a grocery bag tip over in my way-back as I’m driving. I heard on the news yesterday that she came back 20 minutes later!!! I’m not saying she did this on purpose, but something was up. Was she busy texting or was she under the influence of something? I’ll wait to hear more details.

[aceplace57]

I hope some sort of update is forth coming.

Was the latch faulty or not?

Did this driver actually fail to shut the door? It seems unimaginable it could occur and the outside noise not immediately be noticed.

I don’t text and drive and absolutely don’t DUI. I don’t know if these drivers could fail to hear a open car door. A lot of vehicles have door ajar alarms too.

I hear wind noise almost instantly, stop, and slam the door closed before driving 10 feet from my driveway. It’s a major PITA when it’s my van’s rear door. That requires getting out and walking to the rear.

[Sparky812]

@Hermitian

As someone who has done more than my share of fighting with seats, I don’t see how you could intend to do Latch and fail a simple connection (while sober).

Not tight enough? Sure. Lots of people struggle with that. But latch has two connections, either one of which would have held that seat in. She would have had to fail in connecting both of them.

Actually, there’s 3 latches. Every car seat I’ve had or seen has either 2 latches at the bottom (or the seatbelt if the car is older) and a 3rd tether at the top that attaches to a frame bolt or bracket at the back to prevent the car seat from moving forward.

From what I read, she returned 20 minutes later… on foot!?

[Bill_Door]

@aceplace57

I hadn’t considered DUI because it wasn’t mentioned in the article.

That would change everything.

Why would it change anything? If she was drunk she’s in big trouble but if she’s just negligent it’s all good? Drunk people can get sober but negligence can last a lifetime.

[Gatopescado]

Weird, but I always notice when my back door flies open while driving.

[Suburban_Plankton]

At about 1:29 in the video, you can see the car at the intersection ahead; the door closes, and the car proceeds through the intersection. I don;r buy for a second that the driver was unaware that *something *out of the ordinary was going on.

[Suburban_Plankton]

@Gatopescado

Weird, but I always notice when my back door flies open while driving.

Counterpoint: I have never noticed it happening to me. You heard me right; in 35 years of driving, not one time have I noticed my back door springing open for no apparent reason.

[Gatopescado]

You’ve clearly never owned a Jeep.