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OMG - am astounded by what I saw today!

60 replies

popsycal · 16/05/2004 20:38

We were driving into tesco.....a car was waiting to pull out onto the main road

A man was driving a woman in the passenger seat
standing on the man's knee whilst he was driving was a child less than a year old

the car was moving and was about to pull out onto a busy road!!

WTF

OP posts:
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wobblyknicks · 16/05/2004 20:40

That is terrible - what are these people thinking? Or not, as the case may be

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mummysurfer · 16/05/2004 20:41

makes you want to take their reg and ring the police, doesn't it?

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popsycal · 16/05/2004 20:41

i would have had i seen it in time

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cuppy · 16/05/2004 20:42

Some people just dont care. They think it happens to other people no them - until its too late

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kalex · 16/05/2004 20:46

as summed in the film "Parenthood"
You need a Liscence (spelling?) for a dog, but anybody can have a kid!!!!!

Gobsmacked, but generally gobsmacked at least a couple of time a week by what I see happening around about me

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discordia · 16/05/2004 20:51

Unbelievable. Yesterday I saw a car going along a dual carriageway (ie, quite fast!) with a child standing up with his head out of the sunroof.

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juniper68 · 16/05/2004 20:56

Ditto gobsmacked daily. Grrrrrrrr at these 'parents'

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eddm · 16/05/2004 21:03

Wow Popsy that is shocking.

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Soulfly · 16/05/2004 21:24

OMG!

On saturday we got a taxi to my dads house cause it takes awhile to get there by train, and he said to get a taxi down cause he lives in the sticks. Anyway DH strapped the kids in, etc and the taxi driver said it is amazing how many people don't put the seatbelts on the kids. And she commented on how well behaved they were!

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Caribbeanqueen · 16/05/2004 21:37

Where I used to live it was common practice for kids to stand/sit in the front seat, no matter how young, and nobody at all wore seatbelts.

I once saw a woman driving, holding the steering wheel with one hand and cradling a new born in the other arm. It made me feel sick.

There was nothing we could do, because the police didn't care and we were the odd ones out for having seatbelts/baby seats.

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squirmyworm · 16/05/2004 21:40

my sister and I were having this conversation - can anyone remember what we did in our day? (I'm 37) I don't remember having a car seat at all but I must have been out in the car. Would we just have been on people's laps? What if our mothers/fathers were on their own with us - had a real mental block about it. Recall wearing a seat belt at about the age of 4 (no booster or anything) but a total blank before that

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hovely · 19/05/2004 22:23

my parents said they fixed a carrycot into the back somehow, they had a minivan so I suppose it got screwed onto the floor.

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tamum · 19/05/2004 22:32

I vividly remember sitting in the back seat when I was 3 with my brother beside me, he was in a carrycot (unrestrained). We went round a bend and the car door flew open, I grabbed the carrycot and saved my brother. What a little heroine. We did actually have a car seat with a little tray in front, but I don't remember it being attached to anything. My mother said it was very unusual to have one at all in those days. You shudder to think really.

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essbee · 19/05/2004 22:54

Message withdrawn

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Paula71 · 20/05/2004 00:27

My mum said she had a carrycot thing too, the seat belt fastened round it, or over it. She can't quite remember now!

I passed a car where the child, blonde boy aged about 4/5, had his head stuck out the window! It is a particularly bad road as well, cars parked on both sides so not much room. I yelled in fright as I drove by, I hate that road as it is. Visions of my wing mirror beheading the lad made me pull over and let DH take the wheel. He was quite shaken too.

Common sense isn't that common I've found.

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Ghosty · 20/05/2004 02:24

A couple of weeks ago here in NZ there were two accidents on the same day involving young babies.
In one case the baby was in the baby seat and started grizzling ... the father took the baby out to try and calm him down while the mother carried on driving. The mother got distracted, hit a tree, baby went through windscreen ...
The other incident was a baby that wasn't even strapped in at all ... it was killed when the mother had to brake very suddenly.
I felt sick for days after hearing about it on the news.
How can you love a baby and then not strap it into a car?

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toddlerbob · 20/05/2004 02:38

I found both those stories staggering too Ghosty. Very sad, and totally preventable.

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nightowl · 20/05/2004 02:54

from what someone said about taxis...i hate getting in them. they wont wait for me to strap in the car seat and if i ask them to, they huff and puff and charge me extra for waiting, or say "well cant you just hold her?" no, i bloody well cant!! makes me so angry.

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gothicmama · 20/05/2004 06:15

Taxi drivers were we live won't driv unless child is strapped in - I think taxi firms should supply seats if you book them for a nominall fee this would help reduce waiting times for the drivers and be safe I do not think it is covered by legislation perhaps it should be

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acnebride · 20/05/2004 07:10

I remember well bouncing around in the 'very back' boot of our estate at age of 9 or 10 (I'm 35). i also remember sitting on my dad's knee on front seat with his hands round me. And remember being travel sick all over his hands... To be fair, cars were a lot slower and traffic was a lot less then. but still a good reason for the laws to be brought in and people are mad to leave kids unstrapped now.

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Podmog · 20/05/2004 08:19

Message withdrawn

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eefs · 20/05/2004 10:41

out of curiousity - has anyone actually rung the police for something like this? What did they say? Can they do anything about it?

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JanZ · 20/05/2004 10:48

When I was wee, most cars didn't have seat belts - and definitely none in the back seats! (I'm showing my age!) I remember my parents were seen as unusual in always insisting on wearing them if they were available.

I can even remember the debates about civil liberties when they changed the law to make drivers wear seat belts.

It's not actually been THAT long since it WASN'T cumpulsory for seat belts to be installed in the back of cars.

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marialuisa · 20/05/2004 10:49

sorry Podmog, your description reminded me of the "Goodness gracious me" sketch...

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Flip · 20/05/2004 11:00

I'm 27 and it wasn't compulsery to wear seat belts in the back when I was little. I remember my mum and dad having them fitted when I was about seven or eight just because they wanted to. Three days later we had a car accident. Quite a nasty one and it haunts me now. A young lad driving his dad's car at a ridiculous speed hit our car and sent it crashing into some woods. We hit several trees and all the windows came in. My sister and I would have died had my dad not fitted the seatbelts that weekend.

I won't even start the car if anyone refuses to wear a seatbelt. That includes adults. My dad is the same. He works at a school and was giving the head master a lift home. He insisted that he put his seatbelt on even though he didn't want to.

I agree that years ago roads weren't as dangerous as they are now. The volume of traffic means you have to take risks and dive out into a tiny gap. There was a time when I was a kid that you could play curby in my mum and dad's street. You're lucky to find a parking space these days. Cars are on the pavement either side of the road.

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