Bob, When I was 5 or 6 years old, my family went for a day trip in Pennsylvania to look at the autumn leaves. My parents left my 2-yr old brother, asleep in the car seat, and we walked maybe 50 yards up the road, still in sight of the vehicle. When we turned around to walk back to the car we discovered he had put it in neutral and it rolled backwards some number of feet across the road and over the edge of a hill but then got stuck. No damage to him or to the car. It was a '59 Ford Fairlane wagon which looked like this except bronze and white.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3091/2527710480_74ecd0bb5d.jpg?v=0 My parents had to call a tow-truck, and were by no means well off, so lesson learned. I remember them being upset about the what MIGHT have happened. My brother is still a dumbass and I hope he doesn't read this. :-) Not too smart of my parents, 1) leaving a baby in a car seat in an unattended vehicle (though this was '65/'66), 2) not having the emergency brake set. But neither were my parents total idiots. It was a lapse in judgement (or even simply, momentarily not thinking) that fortunately didn't have dire consequences. I know they left him there because he was asleep. What could happen? I suspect the same is true for a very high percentage of people that forget a child is in the car. I can't imagine myself doing it, but I can understand how it could happen. Especially in a scenario where, a stressed-out, young mom, needs to run in somewhere very quickly, say a doctor's office, expects to be gone for just a minute, but gets stuck for 15 - 20. Maybe the baby has been sick and is now finally asleep so instead of waking and lugging a fussy baby inside, she decides to simply let it sleep. Air conditioner was on in the car before she got out and shut off engine. I know what I would do if I ever came across the situation where a child was left in a sealed car. I would bust a window and wait for the parent to return. I'd apologize for the busted window and the last thing I would do, no never, would be to call a Social Services department. Tom C. On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 12:20 AM, Bob Sullivan <[email protected]> wrote: > Rob, > I remember playing with the car when I was a child. > This accident was clearly the fault of the parents. > Who leaves little kids in a running car on the driveway of their house. > It's just a matter of time before the kids stumble on the right combination > to get the car into gear. > Regards, Bob S. > > On Sun, May 30, 2010 at 11:11 PM, Rob Studdert <[email protected]> > wrote: >> On 31/05/2010, Bob Sullivan <[email protected]> wrote: >>> These kids aren't that old. It was a late model car with the >>> brake/shift interlock installed. >>> Kids are resourceful! >> >> Again I wonder how much of the fault is the parents? My little guy >> loves to sit in the front seat playing driver, but he's got absolutely >> no idea that the interlock is there let alone how it works and until >> he learns to drive I'm not going to tell him. >> >> -- >> Rob Studdert (Digital Image Studio) >> Tel: +61-418-166-870 UTC +10 Hours >> Gmail, eBay, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Picasa: distudio >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> [email protected] >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. >> > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
