- cross-posted to:
- fuckcars@lemmy.world
- fuckcars@lemmy.ca
- cross-posted to:
- fuckcars@lemmy.world
- fuckcars@lemmy.ca
Not the first time this has happened either, here’s another similar case in Atlanta: https://abcnews.go.com/US/mother-boy-killed-hit-run-driver-probation-community/story?id=14158040
Wtf, are kids 10 and 7 not old enough to walk by themselves to the grocery store now?
Meanwhile all the boomers talk about how they have such find memories of walking around unsupervised until the streetlights came on or whatever lame Facebook nostalgia meme they’re parroting
Sorry I’m not following. Are you saying the boomers experienced it and pulled up the ladder like dickheads? Or that anyone who had freedom as a child is a boomer with irresponsible parents? I’m confused.
I think the point is that boomers will say kids these days are too sheltered, and also say unaccompanied kids today are a nuisance or a safety concern. This is a typical boomer double standard.
Yeah, I remember when I was 7 I’d explore everywhere around my house for at least a few miles. There was a convenience store 2 miles out where I’d buy candy any time I’d scrounged up a few dollars of change.
What happened was terrible, but it was an accident nevertheless. Nobody should have to serve time, especially not the grieving parents.
Those who design american neighborhoods to be so car centric definitely should.
It’s fucking insane that anyone thought to charge them, let alone actually follow through with it. Multiple people have to have agreed for this to be reality. Another shit stain on humanity
Please see book “There are no accidents”. it was a tragedy, and the sort where blame and punishment at an individual level doesn’t bring about justice in any meaningful sense, but it was hardly an accident - to predictable to merit that label
Same, having the freedom to ride my bike wherever I could and meet and play with other kids was crucial to my social and personal development.
The CEO of the company that built the car should serve time
I live a few miles from where this occurred. The sidewalk is right on the road (only on one side) it’s 4 lanes with no crossing other than the light at the grocery store. You cross at the light, you have no sidewalk, you don’t cross at the light you have to cross without a crosswalk. It’s 4 lanes split by a row of trees, very low visibility, and every one speeds over the 45 mph posted speed limit. I wouldn’t let my 13 cross that road and walk down it, much less at 6pm, one of the busiest times.
For context, this is where it occurred: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9GjCYGBAm5BBm8k59
Such a speed limit on a road through a residential neighborhood in insane :O
I dunno does your 7 year old jump out into oncoming traffic often? Cuz this kid did.
I think you’re trying to make a pretty s***** implication. Remember that this is a situation where the parents got charged with a crime for being reckless. Are you insinuating that the parents knew that their 7 year old child was likely to jump out into the street, and that perhaps the child had a history of doing so, and that the parents nevertheless allowed the child to walk home from the store? It sounds like that’s what you’re claiming.
@fodor @pixxelkick Contrast this with the treatment of rich white parents who buy their teenage children cars and allow them to continue using them unsupervised despite evidence that they routinely speed, drive distracted, and otherwise violate traffic laws when their teenager kills someone with their weapon.
A history isn’t needed, the child is seven years old, that’s all that’s needed.
Seven year olds are not nearly old enough to wander around 4 lane busy roads unsupervised, full stop.
That’s blatant negligence, there’s no getting past that.
That’s why 4 lane roads should be banned
Exactly. Why are there 4 lane roads in pedestrian areas, especially so close to a school? Where is the pedestrian infrastructure so that this child could have walked safely?
I despise how people want to shift the blame to a child just walking to school and the parents who weren’t even involved instead of the driver of a multi-ton death machine for not paying attention to pedestrians.
I agree, well, at least car lanes.
Turn 2 of the lanes into bike lanes.
Tram?
He was with his older brother, who is 10.
And if a 10 year old is perfectly capable of walking to school (literally according to everyone), a 7 year old with their 10 year old brother should also be perfectly fine walking TWO BLOCKS without the worry of being killed by a driver.
And 4 lane roads should be banned in urban centers. It’s fucking ridiculous to have a goddamn highway in an area where children and families should be able to walk home safely!
…No…
A 10 year old is not old enough to be responsible for a 7 year old, full stop. Most experts consider around 12 to 13 the minimum maturity for a child to be capable of being responsible for another child. 10 is definitely too young to be looking after another kid, wtf are you talking about.
I really hope you don’t have kids…
The experts say:
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (UK)
Ottawa Safety Council (Walk Alone Program, Canada)
American Academy of Pediatrics (USA)
They also put this poster together:
Every country has the same general consensus.
Kids and grandkids. And I was also once a kid with a younger sibling. And I see young kids walking to our local school on a regular bases.
If someone is still walking their teenager to school, they should probably stop 😮
Kids shouldn’t be raising kids.
Fuck cars, but 10 year old children shouldn’t have to be responsible for other children. They shouldn’t have any responsibilities yet.
I agree that kids shouldn’t be raising kids.
But these kids were simply walking a few hundred meters from the store to their home in broad daylight, while on the phone with their father, and were old enough to be doing so.
This would be considered completely normal in any other country.
It’s also important to note that I don’t believe any city, state, or country has minimum age laws for kids to walk. Staying at home alone or in a car? Yes, but not walking (or playing outdoors, or riding a bike, etc.)
So for the courts to charge the parents with child neglect and manslaughter seems wildly unbalanced.
Reread what you wrote.
A 10 year old being able to walk home is not the same as that 10 year old also being responsible for a 7 year old
This isn’t rocket science.
Of course, there are always special circumstances when a child should have constant adult supervision (developmental delays, medical needs, etc.), but this wasn’t the issue here.
But according to experts, if younger children (under 8) should be with an adult or older sibling, and if 10 is old enough to walk alone, then 7 with a 10 year old is fine to walk 300m home. It would make both kids safer and more visible, since they are in a “group”.
If the kid was 4 or 5, then that would be different, for sure.
But why is blame being shifted onto the victim here?
There is no reason whatsoever that an older kid and their sibling shouldn’t be able to safely walk two blocks to their home.
This wouldn’t even be a topic for discussion anywhere outside of the united states or for anyone who was a kid before the 90s.
@pixxelkick @Showroom7561 a 10 year old should be able to be safe outdoors, c’mon…
See, for Instance, the Nederlands, kids go to school by bicycle.
https://youtu.be/2fU3nhGrp3Q
I’ve seen toddlers in public transport (yes with an adult, but one for 10 kids or so), in Switzerland.
“Should be able to” doesn’t mean jack shit in terms of fault here.
The reality is, it wasnt safe. Yeah, it would be nice if it was safe.
But it wasn’t safe, and any parent that isn’t a negligent idiot would know it’s not safe, this is literally the Fuck Cars lemmy, so you should know how dangerous a 4 lane road is.
And thus you should know not to let your kids out unsupervised near one.
I don’t give a shit how safe we would like ot to be, the functional inference of "was this mother negligent or not* isn’t based off how safe we’d like it to be
It’s functional of how safe/dangerous it actually is at the time.
It’s like if a mother let’s her kids play unsupervised in a fucking hurricane and you try and argue “well there shouldn’t be a hurricane”
No one should give a shit, there very clearly, obviously, and demonstratebly was a fucking hurricane, so don’t fucking let your kids play in it. Don’t be a fucking dumb ass, supervise your children in potentially dangerous situations.
If this was some like a quiet neighborhood 1.5 lane sleepy street I’d be on the mom’s side more here.
But it was a fucking 4 lane busy road
Yes, that should be obviously negligent behavior to literally anyone with 2 braincells to rub together.
Fuck cars, but also fuck negligent parents that let their kids play near fucking traffic.
They are if you teach them well