Why Don't People Strap Their Kids in?I am constantly amazed by the stupidity of people that don't strap their young kids in for car rides. Even short car rides. Like from home to school, which is where a lot of accidents tend to happen because people aren't paying attention.
Case in point: Yesterday I was stopped at a stop sign on the way to pick up Scytheboy from school. The person that had the right of way was on a cell phone and had a young toddler in the front seat...standing up...and bouncing up and down on the seat.
She finally noticed I was waiting for her to go. She went, after switching the phone from one ear to the other. Then I went. I was driving the conservative 30 mile an hour speed limit. I glanced down to check the clock....and....when I looked up.....the lady was swerved half way in my lane and I was about an inch away from plowing in to her. She was noticed at the same time I did that I was in the lane and stopped at about the same time. She was still on the phone, and the kid was still bouncing freely in the front seat...on the side of the car that I would have hit if I had not stopped in time after she swerved into my lane.
But it was OK I guess because she put her turn signal on after we both had stopped so that makes everything all right....at least in her mind I guess it does.
I would bet this kind of thing happens to this woman ALL the time. And many others like her. To hell with safety....it's just so much EASIER not to fight with the kid about the car seat and to get calls done while they're driving to a friend's house. Doesn't matter if they swerve all over the road or their kid gets hurt due to their inattention...what matters is that THEY got where THEY needed to go with the least possible amount of inconvenience to THEM.
I knew this lady once who never strapped her kids in. Then we went to play racquetball at the base gym and she accidentally slammed into the wall. I casually mentioned to her that she was probably running less than five miles an hour, and think how hard someone would slam into a windshield during a wreck if they weren't strapped in. She really got her bell rung and I guess she put two and two together because the next time I saw her with her kids they were strapped in. And she was a die-hard "the government can't tell me what to do with my kids" type.
Although it's gotten better, unfortunately, there will always be those who either don't think it's necessary to strap their kids in because they were never strapped in, don't want to deal with the hassle of fighting with their kids to strap them in, or are in just too much of a hurry to strap their kids in for even the shortest trips...and ultimately some of the kids will pay the price for their parents' decisions not to be safe and they will get hurt in an accident caused either by their parent or another parent on a cell phone just not paying attention.....sad.
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Comments
exactly
Posted by: Christie on October 8, 2005 05:05 PM
My boys are big enough to buckle themselves in (13 and 11), but when they were small the car didn't move until everyone was buckled in - and if the kids unbuckled? I stopped the car until they were done up again. I don't know about over there - but it's law here for adults to wear seatbelts too, so the kids think nothing of it.
People that don't abide by a law such as this just to defy the government or any other agency are fools. Making a point in their own tiny minds obviously is more important than the safety of their children. Idiots.
So endeth my rant :)
Posted by: DaFFy on October 6, 2005 11:35 PM
Supposedly in MO, you can take down the license plate number and someone will give them a call to investigate. Never done it, though.
Posted by: DrinkJack ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://thepeachpit.net/nav-commenters.gif)
on October 6, 2005 07:35 PM
Scully - good points.
Dak-ind - Yes, I do agree that the gov't should stay out of our personal lives as much as possible...however this is more of an issue where unfortunately laws had to be made so parents have at least a deterrent to putting their kids in harm's way due to negligence. One of the few laws in this area I say I have to agree with. A shame, though, that some parents don't seem to care enough to do it even with the law.
Posted by: Peaches on October 6, 2005 06:27 PM
i am one of those people who do not believe that the gorvernment (and/or my neighbors) should be able to tell me how to raise my children. However, i put my son in his car seat because it is the law, and in Oregon where we live, if you are caught with your child not in his car seat Children's prtective services gets involved and the penalty can be up to and including losing your child to the state for abuse/neglect (especially if that child is hurt in an accident).
Posted by: dak-ind on October 6, 2005 05:15 PM
I have to admit, I don't like when the government gets all patriarchal on me, but then I realize sometimes I'm too stupid to live.
My sister and I, when I was about 4 1/2 and she was just a baby, were both injured in a car accident. I was in the front seat in between the driver and the front seat passenger on the hump and my sister was in the back on my mother's lap. My dad had barely started the car and we were rear ended. Both my sister and I were injured because we were flying projectiles and my dad wasn't even moving, but he had taken the car out of park.
We were lucky and it was a big old car from the early 60's. But still, if we had been moving, I think my sister might have been killed and I would have had facial injuries from going into the dashboard.
So, I don't have a problem with seatbelts and mandatory legislation.
As well, I worked in insurance on many gruesome car accidents for years. There's no need to bury a child because of a car accident because they weren't strapped in. Many of those deaths were preventable.
Posted by: Scully on October 6, 2005 03:33 PM
