To wonder why this mother has not been prosecuted for the death of child

[Marmotte3]

www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/he-wouldnt-settle-so-i-had-to-take-him-in-my-hands-while-driving-inquest-31595840.html

The article details the outcome of the inquest - death by misadventure. The father blames the airbag for killing the child but it is clear to me that it is the mother who is responsible for the death.

Maybe I'm wrong, I suppose it's possible there is a separate legal prosecution against her but it doesn't sound like it form the article.

I'm confused. Why is the law different if you are a Traveller? I thought laws applied to everyone. Why would there be a rights lobby to make sure laws applied differently if you are a Traveller?

I am sure the mother is suffering and I feel sorry for her but what about the child?

I am reminded of Gene Weingarten 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning article Fatal Distraction

The cause of the childs death in the car is different, but I am reminded of parents like Lyn Balfour, Miles Harrison and Mary Parks with stories like this.

Fatal Distraction is by far the best article I have ever read.

It has stayed with me and I am often reminded of the harrowing and sensitive way it explains parental suffering following them causing the death of their child. Now I understand I would never make a blanket statement like "A crime was committed. It's not that difficult." in relation to things like this.

fate personally I think those are 2 different situations. This woman didn't get distracted and forget. She deliberately took her child out of his car seat and held him while driving , apparently on the wrong side of the road. I would think there were several laws being broken right there.
playingsolitaire I think the inference is that travellers sometimes get away with breaking the law due to their legal status as an ethnic minority. There is such a perception, rightly or wrongly.

have reread the thread with all the new posts.

so in terms of making a difference to childrens lives, what would be more effective. spending the money jailing this mother, spending money supporting her motherless children and/or partner.

or, spending the money on education and information. others who know more about the area that this happened in have said there are lots of kids in cars not strapped in. so what about an education programme using this as the example. get people in the community involved not just the police stopping cars where this is happening.

this tragedy has happened. the real tragedy would be for it to happen again and again.

so in terms of making a difference to childrens lives, what would be more effective. spending the money jailing this mother, spending money supporting her motherless children and/or partner

You are not comparing like with like. What I and many others are taking exception to is this notion of "Oh the poor woman, she's suffered so much , let us just not apply the law to her" .

It's actually quite offensive - as if being a mother robs her of any ability to have individual agency.

KatieLatie: "I am sure that this is not the only woman ever to be silly enough yo do something like this"

But never men, eh? Are women uniquely silly?

It would never ever occur to me to hold a baby while driving. It is clearly so insanely dangerous that it wouldn't cross my mind. I would hope that not very many people do this but who knows? As for education campaigns, if people can't work out why they shouldn't do it, is there any purpose to an education campaign?

She does not seem of sound mind, doing what she did, how tragic fir all.

I'm confused. Why is the law different if you are a Traveller?

Of course the law isn't different but you’d need your head buried in the sand up to arse level not to notice that, in practice, a parallel system is in place.

Literacy, life expectancy and suicide rates among the Traveller community are all shocking, proper jaw dropping stuff. One in ten children die before reaching the age of two.

www.independent.ie/irish-news/sad-truth-revealed-about-travellers-life-expectancy-26300078.html

Those figures are awful, silently. Collected on a population of only 255 travelling people though?

SilentlyScreaming- the article is very sad, but isn't anything to do with the law. That is what I am confused about- the law being applied in different ways according to people's backgrounds. That cannot be the case surely? You cannot say to two people in the same country that one has broken the law and one has not because of their ethnicity.

It was implied in the previous post that the woman hadn't been found guilty of any lawful act because she wa a Traveller. Which would lead you to believe that if she had not been a traveller, she would have been prosecuted for causing her child's death.

" What I and many others are taking exception to is this notion of "Oh the poor woman, she's suffered so much , let us just not apply the law to her""

exactly this

What would possess anyone to try to hold a baby while driving is beyond me. She should be arrested for manslaughter.

Haven't read the full thread so apologies if this has been said but the contrast with the woman whose todder drowned is striking. One of these cases has been handled wrong, without a doubt.

I do think, for the safety of children in future, there should be some penalty for the lady here.

I am sure that this is not the only woman ever to be silly enough yo do something like this (or, more likely, hold a baby in the front passenger seat (and with airbag active) on a journey...

Really? It is behaviour so uniquely stupid I'm surprised she ever managed to pass a driving test.

It's certainly behaviour so stupid that any one who did should lose their licence.

I get so fed up of women making excuses for women's stupid behaviour.

It's not that this woman hasn't broken the law, she obviously has, but the law isn't applied equally. She won't be punished, not because of a misplaced sense of compassion, but because the death of a Traveller child isn't taken as seriously as the death of a child from the settled community.

There are such inconsistencies in this area, though I guess Ireland is different to the UK.

Someone I know was prosecuted for an accident where he lost six of his children. He overtook, driving a 4x4, went off the road to do the overtake and misjudged it and rolled into a river. He received a substantial custodial sentence. Prosecution also said some home repairs he'd done to the vehical had made it unsafe......but he hadn't realised that. He thought it was ok. He thought his overtake would be ok.

Now in my mind that situation isn't as bad as driving about on the wrong side of the road while holding a baby.....which surely anyone can see is dangerous.

I felt the bloke I knew didn't deserve to go to prison. He made an awful mistake with terrible consequences but surely losing six of his children is punishment enough? What's to be gained from him going to prison for years. Interestingly the children's mother who was there at the accident and initially stood by him I believe now blames him and is very angry with him.

Causing death by dangerous driving does often result in a custodial sentence.

Someone I know was prosecuted for an accident where he lost six of his children. He overtook, driving a 4x4, went off the road to do the overtake and misjudged it and rolled into a river. He received a substantial custodial sentence. Prosecution also said some home repairs he'd done to the vehical had made it unsafe......but he hadn't realised that

So behaviour equally as stupid and reckless as this woman's? I see no reason for not applying the law and a punishment to both of them.

silentlyscreaming either that, or the authorities are somewhat afraid to investigate travellers, for fear of being accused of racism/bigotry. There is a perception of travellers living outside the law. See Rotherham, Rochdale, etc for a similar situation.
I'm not saying if this is true or not, but this is the way that some people think.

Some bizarre responses on here

I think someone up thread had it right, about the Traveller connection. I used to work somewhere that had a lot of Travellers as customer so I got to know a few faces. I would see them pulling up in a car, usually untaxed, with no seatbelts on, children on an adults knees in the passenger seat and about five or six other kids piled in the back. Police never bothered with them either.

So the baby who died was discriminated against because he was a traveller which meant his life wasn't considered (by those prosecuting) as important as if he was a different ethnicity?

Poor baby.

If this was the father that had done something so fucking idiotic, then there would be outrage. No compassion, no "well he has to live with it for the rest of his life" and certainly no "it was his kid so its fine"

I'm reminded of a woman a few years ago, who strapped her baby into his buggy, and put him in front of the fire to keep him warm. She fell asleep on the sofa. Baby died. She didn't mean for it to happen, she just wanted to keep him warm. I can't remember the exact details, but remember that she was charged with neglect. And I remember thinking she was a bloody idiot too. Surely you just get an extra blanket. , but the woman in this case is far worse. She repeatedly broke the law, and ended up killing her baby.

That poor child.

I’ve made it sound like someone has actively thought ‘ah, sure it’s only a Traveller baby’ and I doubt that’s actually the case. However, there is an acceptance that ‘they’ behave differently. That school attendance, car safety and child neglect are insurmountable problems in the Traveller community and that no one has the time or resources to do anything about them; it’s not helped by the advocacy groups claiming that these things are cultural and shouldn’t be challenged.

I'm a bit confused about the posts saying the jury have heard all the evidence and made their decision. This is an inquest into the babies death (why would there be a jury?) it's not criminal proceedings, it is not related to criminal proceedings against the mother. It's only about the baby. There may still be criminal proceedings, or if not, we don't know why the gardai decided not to Persue criminal action against her.

The point about travellers is not that the babies life is worth less but that there is a huge, largely ignored by the police, problem with travellers and Crimes amongst the travelling community such as dangerous driving. From what I can tell, no one in authority can face "going there" not only because it would be incredibly difficult to resolve but also so as not to be accused of racism.

I agree, she should be prsecuted as she caused the babies death.

I hate the "she's suffered enough" narrative. I agree with the poster up thread who argued that this is treating the baby as a possession of their parent and not as a human being. If my DH killed me through grossly reckless behaviour I'm pretty sure nobody would say "oh, he's suffered enough, just forget about it."

But if the police are systematically failing to enforce legislation aimed at saving children's lives then they also have blood on their hands.

Bet this mother blames herself each and every day and night . As for the rest of us- there but for the grace of god go we.