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A 5yr old boy was killed this week when a tow truck ran him over while he biked. Apparently the tow truck blew the stop sign in a residential area. Investigation is pending...(cell phone? texting? simple human error and distraction? who knows)
The news has been all abuzz with pointing fingers at the tow truck driver, the lack of speed bumps on the street (apparently running the stop sign is common and the residents are well aware of this), etc...
Can I stop here for one second.....
WHY WAS A 5yr OLD RIDING A BIKE WITHOUT ANY ADULT SUPERVISION?????????????
If you read the article, it states
"We actually do not have very many adults who have witnessed this"
WHY??
"Most of our witnesses to this incident are small, very small, children or young adults"
Are you kidding me??
Would you let your 5 year old head out for a "bike ride" with other kids...alone? 5 year olds can barely tie their shoes, never mind practice road safety.
We were driving to a party last weekend and as we turned onto the street we saw this...
Of course we slowed right down, as the 3 kids were busy playing on the street...and then the 3 year old started to run towards our car and stuck out his tongue at us....
Again, NO PARENTS IN SIGHT.....the kids sauntered back to their garage, which was open.....but still
NO PARENTS IN SIGHT
Does placing a simple sign outside your driveway give you enough comfort that motorists will actually see it and slow down?
Why are WE not watching our kids at play?
Ugh, this topic frustrates me to no end. We live right by a playground zone and hardly anyone slows down! It drives me nuts to see people speeding past the playground where our kids are playing. I actually wave my hands at them and tell them to slow down!!
ReplyDeleteI would never let my kids play out on the street where there are cars driving by without being right there. Even in our backyard I check on them every 5 minutes!
Um YES!!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree 400%. I still don't let Jack, who is NINE ride his bike in our neighborhood alone. I don't trust other people, therefore I watch my own kids.
Amen Cheryl, AMEN.
That is ridiculous, Cheryl. That poor child.
ReplyDeleteEven on my own street, I rarely let the kids play even on the driveway without me around. We're in a fairly quiet neighbourhood but then we get the odd crazy who barrels down our residential street at about 90 km/h. It only takes a millisecond, I figure ... and I shudder. I only recently started being okay with my 10 year old riding with his friends with a friend's parent also along for the ride. My 5 year old -no fricken way! Insanity!
Oh I feel the same way as you do. When I read about this poor little boy earlier this week in the paper my first reaction was, "where were the parents and if they weren't there why was a 5 year old riding his bike on the street alone?". I don't want to put blame on the parents or the boy or the truck driver because I don't know all of the details.
ReplyDeleteI, like you, see many little kids on our street playing on the road. I look around and I can't find any parents. I have had to come to a complete stop and even then a little 4 year old almost walked right into the front of my van because he wasn't looking!!
I don't let my 4 year old even play on the driveway or even in the front yard without supervision, let alone on the street.
It is just so sad that it takes something as tragic as this to happen to hopefully change how people look after their children and drive around parks.
No, no, no. It's going to be YEARS (and years and years and years) before L gets to play outside by himself. ESPECIALLY if I live on a street with a stop sign that I know people often blow through! This makes me sick.I'm not saying it's the parents' fault. Even if they were out there, this could have happened. But what if it didn't?
ReplyDeleteThat's a very sad story. As my daughter grows it's tough to know when to start letting her have more independence. Maybe these people let him go a little to early. Chances are they were never really looking out for him in the first place.
ReplyDeleteOh my WORD. I don't get it. If my children are outside my house, I'm within an arms length of them. I cannot imagine letting my almost-9-year-old go biking by herself, much less a 5-year-old!
ReplyDeleteThat really, really sucks.