I just called the police. Not 911. Just the “non-emergency” police. My sense of civic duty and total fear & panic about children in car accidents kicked-in. Especially after the gruesome, most certainly fatal car accident we drove past last night. Maybe I’m just super senstive to it today because of that, or because I have two chilren. Or because some things are just opposite of common sense and you JUST. DON’T. DO. THEM.
Here’s the scenario:
A truck just pulled up outside my house and the back door opened. Out of it came two men. Sitting inside still, in the middle seat, was a woman with a small girl-child on her lap. Outrage set in. No car seat, no seat belt on the woman, even. Outrage grew when ANOTHER little girl, most definitely small enough to require some sort of seat-restraining contraption, climbed out of the back seat, over the aforementioned woman & child. THEN? Then, three young boys, the oldest couldn’t have been more than 10, came out of the house next door (where there is a lot of work being done) and climbed into the backseat of the truck WITH the woman & two little girls.
So, let’s count. That’s AT LEAST 6 people in the backseat of that truck. There are, at most, THREE seatbelts. There are, AT LEAST, two little girls who should be, but are not, in carseats. There are three young boys, who, making assumptions here, are not in seat belts. How does that all add up? In my book, it adds up to one more gruesome accident where a small (or five) innocent child(ren) is(are) thrown from the car and killed. Much like two other accidents that have occurred in our area in the past few months. Small children, thrown from their car and killed because their parents are too damn stupid, busy, cheap to buy them car seats and buckle them in appropriately. Our local authorities even provide car seats, free of charge, to those who need them. FREE OF CHARGE.
Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe I’m being dramatic. Maybe I should mind my own business and let people do what they want. Maybe that’s all true. Maybe I am & maybe I should. But I don’t think I am and I didn’t. So there.
What would you have done?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
What did the police say?
Holy cow.
You seriously can’t imagine the guilt when something happens to your kids. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if there was something you could have done to prevent it.
This is at the top of my list, too. It makes me crazy. CRA. ZEE.
Did the police do anything?
O.K., my comment didn’t take. Did the police come? This makes me crazy, too. I do see it not infrequently here. Those accidents that you are witness to definitely stay with you.
Oh, I would have called in a heartbeat. It’s on the top of “Things that piss me off” list.
That is crazy and I too am curious whether the police did anything but file it away….
I would’ve called as well. That’s ridiculous. It makes me livid when people don’t do common sense things to ensure CHILD safety! Sheesh!
Yoou totally did the right thing. It makes me soo angry when I see the same thing as well. I don’t know what people are thinking. I actually bought a carseat for my brother’s ex-girlfriends kid for the same reason. They wouldn’t have used one!