So on my drive home from meeting up with some friends I glance at the car next to me because I see something moving in the back seat. As I begin to focus on what it is I realize it is a 4yr old little girl. She is leaning in between the bucket seats that make up the front row. The car was a blue Toyota Corolla. There was a man about the age of 25 driving. I tried to get his attention but he would not look at me. Obviously he knew he was doing something wrong. I continued to try for the next 3 red lights and to no avail. What made matters worse was that there was a car seat sitting on its side in the front passenger seat. As we are getting ready to cross the 4th intersection the light turns yellow so we have to slam on our brakes. My mind isn't even thinking about stopping in time or looking behind me to see if the other cars will stop in time. No. It is on the little girl who is about to fly through the front windshield! Luckily this "man" had enough sense to put his arm up and catch her. As we took off from that light I decided I was going to fall back and try to get his license plate number. He must have figured out what I was about to do because he turned right as I started to fall back. I was so shaken up by this that I missed the next turn for us to head home and had to go up a couple more streets for another turn.
I don't understand why people have such a hard time protecting kids. I am not saying that my kid has never been in a dangerous situation, but when we are in the car he is always buckled in and the straps are pulled tightly.....even if we are just driving down the street. There have been plenty of times where I wanted to just toss him in his seat, but then I think "This is going to be the ONE TIME that someone else is driving like an A-Hole and hits us." I would rather take the extra minutes and make sure that my kid is buckled in correctly than possibly have to stare at my kid in a hospital bed just because I wanted to save a minute or two. His life is worth those extra minutes. So, needless to say....BUCKLE YOUR KIDS UP!
I agree. I always buckle my kids. One time, when Lauren was a newborn, I had a blanket over her and I swear I had already had her buckled but I didn't. When I got her out of the car I almost had a heart attack because she hadn't been buckled. But its true, most accidents happen close to home so if you're just driving one mile, it's too dangerous to not buckle them up. My husbands boss got in an accident on the freeway around a blind turn when all the cars had stopped and he couldn't see them until too late. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt and his head went through the window. He still has glass in his eyes today, 4 years later. Imagine if that was a kid!!
ReplyDelete