← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Happy Hacker
Thread ID: 14919 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2004-09-06
2004-09-06 18:25 | User Profile
WICHITA, Kansas (AP) -- Two young girls left unattended in an idling car were killed when the vehicle slipped into gear and ran over them after they fell out, police said.
A 4-year-old girl was struck Saturday as the vehicle -- which had been in the driveway of a house -- rolled into the street, said police Capt. Darrell Haynes.
A second girl, age 2, was hit after the car bounced against a curb on the street, he said. [URL=http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Central/09/06/child.deaths.ap/index.html]CNN[/URL]
First, some accuracy. The gear didn't slip and the girls didn't fall out. What certainly happened was that one of the girls shifted the gears and when the car started to move, the girls jumped out. Then the girls got in the way of the car instead of getting clear of the car.
Although, I wouldn't be at all shocked if a lawsuit follows, either claiming the gears were defective or that the car's design was defective for not locking the gear shift. Most modern cars won't allow the gear to be changed from park without the break being pressed ââ¬â just to prevent this kind of tragedy.
But, the reason I'm posting this is because I'm reminded of the wife of a close friend who went to the drug store, on the way home from Wednesday night church last winter. Maybe November? I posted this incident before in this forum.
One of her children developed a fever at church, or some such thing, so she stopped to get some medicine. She had three young children in the car on a cold winter's night. She parked in front of the drug store, in a very white community, next to a police car with an officer in it. The children were in child safety seats, she turned off the engine, locked the doors, and was back out in under two minutes. No harm came to the children nor was there any reason to think any harm could come to them.
My friend's wife parked next to the police car just to be extra-safe. But, the officer waited for her to come out and then sent the child services agency to her home. This thing really gave me the feeling that we're living in a Police State.
When I posted the story here, several people relied about how you should ever leave children in a car. I took offense at the rather mindless knee-jerk reaction. I even pointed out that it would have been more dangerous for her to have gotten the children out of the car because controlling three young children in a parking lot is not the easiest thing. How many kids are hit every year in parking lots because they walk out in front of a moving car? Besides, kindergarteners are even expected to walk up to a mile to school, every day.
Every time you hear a story of a child getting killed after being left unattended, there is always extenuating circumstances. The child is left for a long time in a hot car. Or, the child is left in a car with the engine running and the doors unlocked. In the case that triggered many of these unattended laws, a moronic white woman in brown town left her her car running and unattended at a convenience store swarming with negroes. One of the negroes then stole the car and pushed out the child while driving, killing the child.
So, now we're stuck with another one-size-fit-all busybody law that even some people in this forum defend. And, the next time someone leaves a child in a car, even in totally safe circumstances, some busybody will be cheering on the police, not just to give a ticket, but to threaten to take away the children. And, they'll feel justified because they'll remember this story of the woman who left two young children in a car, with the engine on, no safety features in the car, and the very unlikely and unfortunate situation of the children getting in the way of the moving car. They could have far more easily have been playing in the yard and suddenly darting out in front of a moving car. This should be accepted as the freak accident that it is.
It was stupid to leave the car running with young children in it. But, that shouldn't be used against women who momentarily leave their children unattended in a safe situation. And, it shouldn't be used to justify busybody laws that in some cases will even raise the risks of getting killed.
2004-09-07 16:01 | User Profile
The English have a saying -- "Hard cases make bad law."
Basing laws on exceptions or special cases is just asking for trouble. Laws should be crafted to deal with the usual and the normal.