The grieving father was yelling “Look at what you’ve done.” 
People just take cars for granted these days. We never give a second thought to what could happen in an accident. I know that I’ll be a little more cautious at intersections. I can’t imagine having that baby’s death on my conscious. I’d have nightmares the rest of my life.
I’d like to know what the cell phone records say. I hope murder charges are filed if either driver was texting or talking on a cell phone.
I once ran over a dog and killed it. There was nothing I could do to prevent it. The dog just ran out in front of my car and I hit it before I could even begin to lift my foot off the gas and onto the brake.
I had nightmares for many years about that. I can’t imagine what it would be like to kill a child.
Ever since that happened (some 20 years ago), I never speed anymore (as much as I can control that) and drive as defensively as possible.
I always knew there was almost never any need to speed or drive aggressively and once I experienced the results, I have always driven as defensively as possible ever since.
Driving down the road in a 3,000 lb (or more) vehicle made of glass and steel is a huge responsibility - much bigger than most of us realize.
However, ever since people started driving cars, accidents have killed and maimed thousands and thousands every year. I feel enormous rage when I hear people say, “It was unfortunate. But it was just an accident.”
I wonder if driving habits would change if people were made to share the responsibility somehow whenever they kill or maim someone - even if it’s an accident.
What if people were forced to pay a portion of the costs and were forced to go and visit and talk with the families of the victims? I bet that would cause them to drive a whole lot more defensively in the future.
Waitaminnit. The baby died on the spot – but the family has established a “memorial fund” to pay for his medical bills? (Last paragraph of the story.) (The father only had minor injuries, the story says.)
Doctors would find an excuse to bill even if the baby came was found in three pieces. Someone has to examine it and say its medically deceased. Then theres the mortuary fees and burial. Gotta pay the band before you can dance.
I once stood straight up on my brakes because of the way a man looked. He crossed in front of me with plenty of room, but then turned and looked over his shoulder. Something down in the lizard part of my brain said “child!”, there was no conscious thought. As I came to a screeching halt a child shot out in front of me, shorter than the tall grass he had been behind. Everyone in the car with me was totally bewildered.
It still makes my neck prickle and my tummy clench when I think about it. I was lucky, it could so easily have gone wrong. It was just the way he looked…
OTOH, had I been on the phone instead of looking at the facial expressions of passersby that kid would’ve been strawberry jam. Yeeeuuhhhhuww shiver I’m glad that’s not allowed here.
There was a horrible accident this past fall. Two sisters (oldest was 12) were playing in the piles of leaves that their father had raked into the street. A young woman and her boyfriend were driving home and she thought it would be fun to plow into the piles. Both girls were killed in front of their father.
It didn’t end there, of course. The driver had no idea that she had hit the children and continued home. Her boyfriend saw the story on TV and convinced the woman, who was an illegal, not to turn herself in, and he then tried to conceal the evidence by taking the car to a car wash.
The young woman was in agony and finally turned herself in and was charged and tried. She was emotionally destroyed by what she had done, possibly as wrecked as the family of the two children. The family, after enduring the trial and getting to know the woman, asked the judge not to impose a harsh sentence. He agreed. Three lives damaged forever in the flick of an eye, and the young woman will likely be deported. It was a sad, sad story.
Why did he rake a pile of leaves, large enough to conceal two children, into the street?
often it’s required for leaf pickup by the city. depending on the method of they use it might be in the street or on the lawn at the curb.
if it is in the street, then warnings are given to not drive through or play in leaf piles.
Oh no! Surely you are not assigning much of the blame to the person who raked the leaves? It seems to me the blame belongs about 70 percent on the driver and 30 percent on the parents of the young children who hid in the leaves. (although I have no idea of the accuracy of those figures - I’m just guessing).
When I was around their age, I remember doing all kinds of really thoughtless and stupid things that would have easily gotten me killed and not thought twice about it. Children around that age really need some education about the potential for harm and dying if they hide in a pile of leaves. But hiding in a pile of leaves is something that children will do without much thought all over the world. I’m sorry to say, but that is true. So sad.
For example, when I was around their age, I remember driving home many miles in the dead of night without any lights on a fairly busy road without any lights on the roadway or on my bicycle. I am extremely lucky that I was not hit by a car and killed or severly injured. I remember thinking about the danger during that ride. But what else was there for me to do?
Still, it was incredibly stupid and dangerous but that is something that a 12 year old child will do just because they have never been educated how to handle that situation and they have never been educated (believe this or not) just how regretful they would be if they were seriously injured.
For any of you who have children, if you are not positive that your children have been educated as to the “top ten” dangers facing them when they are alone, you really need to find out what those dangers are and you need to educate your kids how to handle themselves.
If I had any kids that age, the one thing I would be sure to do is to get them an “emergency-only” cellphone and make sure they would call home if they had any doubts as to the safety of something they were doing.
It is so easy for them to be seriously injured or killed or abducted. It is just absolutely a must to educate them and to be certain they will call home if they have any doubts at all.
I’d really like to find a list of the Top 10 Dangers facing kids when they are alone.
But I’m sure the following belong on that list:
“list most dangerous things children can do when they are alone”
It gave me a few links to sites that looked like this:
One of the links took me to this site:
http://blog.chron.com/bookish/2011/06/dangerous-things-you-should-let-your-children-do/
Dangerous things you should let your children do
I can’t understand the meaning of the title: Dangerous things you should let your children do
Shouldn’t that read: Dangerous things you should **never **let your children do?
Oh dear. Why is a good list so hard to find? Surely one of the top items would be about knowing who a stranger is and talking to a stranger or accepting a ride from a stranger.
Is there anyone who knows a good site for parents on this topic? I can’t believe it is so difficult to find. Piss me off!
Here is one good site about stranger danger. But I’m sure there must be more and better sites.
http://www.ncpc.org/topics/violent-crime-and-personal-safety/strangers
What to Teach Kids About Strangers
This site explains the following:
Who is a stranger?
Who are safe strangers?
Recognizing and Handling Dangerous Situations
What Else Parents Can Do
. Know where your children are at all times. Make it a rule that your children must ask permission or check in with you before going anywhere. Give your children your work and cell phone numbers so they can reach you at all times.
. Point out safe places. Show your children safe places to play, safe roads and paths to take, and safe places to go if there’s trouble.
. Teach children to trust their instincts. Explain that if they ever feel scared or uncomfortable, they should get away as fast as they can and tell an adult.
. Tell them that sometimes adults they know may make them feel uncomfortable, and they should still get away as fast as possible and
tell another adult what happened. Reassure children that you will help them when they need it.
. Teach your children to be assertive. Make sure they know that it’s okay to say no to an adult and to run away from adults in dangerous situations.
. Encourage your children to play with others. There’s safety in numbers!
Here is a fairly good site to educate chilren: www.safetycops.com/stranger_danger.htm
But, there still must be more and better sites.
Here is a link to a thread from SDP: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=724257&highlight=stranger+danger
It’s about Stranger Danger
Not my current town but one I used to live in required the leaves to be raked into a pile on the street. They came through with a giant leaf vacuum and picked them up. I had enough leaves to be able to hide a large preschool class.
This is normal in Portland. The city comes through a few times in the fall with loaders and dump trucks to pick up the massive amounts of leaves that come down. The man was outside with his children, taking photos of them, and apparently stepped inside for a minute to put the camera away. When he came back out, it was over. I’m sure he will never forgive himself for leaving them alone for that moment, but it’s unlikely he could have prevented it if he had been outside. Story.
A better question would be: why would a sane person drive into a pile, not knowing what might be hidden underneath it?
I remember instances of children in Anchorage creating a ‘fort’ inside of a snow berm on the street and were killed by either a plow or street blower.
Did I read the story right that the driver of the truck claimed someone else hit him, therefore causing a wreck (and the death of that poor baby) beyond his control? If so, I think I’d wait a bit before I sent the mob with pitchforks his way.
The wording is unclear but the pictures show the truck was hit by the left-turning sedan.
From the pictures in that article it seems fairly obvious the white sedan hit the truck. This article says the sedan ran the red light, but it’s still under investigation.
Once in the middle of the night when I was a teenager, I drove up on a raccoon that had been run over. It was writhing in agony and although another raccoon wouldn’t let me near it I could clearly see it was a goner. I honked the horn to scare off the other raccoon, put the car in park and finished him off.
That was 30 years ago. It upsets me greatly to this day.
Over a damn raccoon. I pray I’m never involved in the death of another human being.
For what it’s worth, you were right to kill it and end its suffering.
I once experienced something similar. I was hitchhiking and a neighborhood lady picked me up (I was about 10 years old). As we were driving, we saw some kind of mammal (I’m not sure what it was but it looked something like a badger or gopher). It had been hit by a car and was writhing in pain. She pulled over and stopped the car and she was visibly shaking. She told me that we should kill it in order to end its suffering. I was about ten years old and felt kind of scared. I had no idea what to do. I knew that I wasn’t going to touch the animal for fear it might have had rabies or something similar.
She told me to go out of the car and help her line up the front wheel so that she could run it over once and kill it. I didn’t know what to do and I was feeling very afraid. I wanted nothing to do with this situation and considered just getting out of the car and running away. The entire situation seemed very fishy to me. I could not believe that a (approximately) 30 year old lady and mother would actually do such a thing. I wonder if anyone here can tell me what they think they would likely have done at age ten?
looking at the pictures the side of the truck and the right front of the car are damaged. It’s consistent with a driver turning left and striking a vehicle driving straight through. What is not known is if the light was turning yellow/red. Both drivers may have been trying to beat the light.
My first thought was:
Red truck passing legitimately through a junction at normal speed, hit perpendicularly at the back by the white car jumping a light or just not paying attention - red vehicle is deflected to the left of its intended path by the blow.
But it could just as easily be the same sort of collision where the white vehicle had the right of way and the red one sailed through a red light in front of it, or something.