7-yr-old killed riding quad bike ON UNLIT ROAD AFTER DARK!!!

[WendyWeber]

What were they thinking of???

Isay, guess what people will and are expressing hteir disgust at the parents. And what I always find amazing is how the people who don't say they have pity for the idiotic parents are always being big headed (apparently) about their way of bringing up children. Well I know I for one have made mistakes but errrr I have 2 children alive and well even if a bit spoilt...would rather spoil them than take a risk with their lives.

not saying you're big headed, just saying there is little point in indulging in a roasting of the parents. I don't have pity for the parents. I just don't think there is a point to over the top ranting except individual satisfaction. Anyway I'll bog off now.

[actually i do pity anyone who has lost a child but that doesn't preclude other feelings too]

How could anyone not pity these parents?

They've committed the most pathetically stupid, crass error of judgement that has led to the death of what was clearly an adored child. They (or the father at least) is to be despised for his stupidity, but at the same time who could not feel pity for them? They have to live with this for the rest of their lives.

Imagine that... if YOU had made a conscious choice to lead your child into a situation that you knew was illegal and risky, but you thought everything would be fine... and the child DIED.

not read entire thread but I am shocked at this - my friends have just bought their dd (3) a quad for christmas and according to friends dp she will be going it herself by the summer!! She is soooo tiny for her age too - only about 22lbs if shes lucky!

Maybe it's an electric one?

no def not an electric one - at teh moment her dad goes on it over the fields with it. brought it to ours the other day wanting to take my dd out on it with them - with no helmets for any of them no way on this earth will my dd be going near it.

Forty yes imagine that...not having the common sense to know it was a huge risk to your childs saftey and life....what an awful thing to know you caused through neglect and carlessness.

It's official - the dad is an idiot

"There is no point in regretting what happened. It could just as easily have happened if she had been on her horse.

"We don't know why the accident happened and maybe we never will."

So apparently he feels no responsibility or guilt.

No point regretting what happened, No fucking point in regretting that he is the reason his child is dead, what a fucking moron, I hope he suffers every single day of the rest of his life then burns in hell.... go on flame me for that I don't care.

They are idiots. Not only responsible for their child's death, but I also feel sorry for the poor driver who will have to live with having killed a child for the rest of her life.

A child is dead. How dare you judge him - he has lost his child. There is no one on this website, not a single parent, who has not had a moment of indecision that may have ended in disaster.

He was wrong to have let his daughter ride on her ludicrously expensive and over powerful quad, but they have all paid the ultimate price for his bad choices. How does slating them help anyone?

I have absolutely no recollection of what I said after my child died - I have no recollection at all of huge chunks of time in the immediate days and weeks following her death. I cannot think of anything worse than being judged and held responsible for her death - and my ill-chosen, blinded by grief, words being quoted in the tabloid press.

Unbelieveable. The sheer arrogance of presumably thinking he is above the law.

gglimhoho

i'm sorry you have had the experience which leads you to say that but i agree with you

I wouldn't take much notice of newspaper reports of what he has and hasn't said at this time. It's too early for him to make statements really - I am assumoing his head is all over the place and he probably hasn't got a clue what he is saying. Grief does strange things and makes people react in strange ways. I wouldn't judge him on his words in some tabloid newspaper.

HE DESERVES TO BE JUDGED HE IS A PIECE OF LOWLIFE SHIT AND HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS CHILD'S DEATH IT WAS HIS STUPID ACTIONS THAT LEAD TO HER DEATH NOT AN ILLNESS NOT A COT DEATH, BUT THE STUPIDNESS OF ONE MAN THAT NOW SEEMS TO THINK IT WAS JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS AND NOT HIS FAULT IN ANYWAY.

HE SHOULD BE JUDGED AND IN A COURT OF LAW, THEN LOCKED UP.

some people have no capacity for compassion

what gggl said.

I wonder if the mother agreed to him taking them out on the bikes?
I hope they get some sort of counsellings for the son who saw it all happen.
I think the father is to blame, and I think he should be prosecuted.
Yes we have all at some point done something that could have had very bad consequences so it is a case of there but for the grace of god sort of thing, but come on how many her would have but a small child on a quad bike, on a public road in the dark??? My guess is no one.
How many of us have done something that we knew was against the law? How many of us would say these things happen?
This poor excuse for a parent has let his child down in the worst way and at the ultimate cost.

I for one have compassion but not for someone who deliberatly endangers their childs life. Would any parents feel compassion for another if they had allowed their child to play with fire and the child had died? no i doubt it, he allowed her on an open road which is not only bloody idiotic but also illegal. I wonder how many of you who are pitying him would feel the same if the quad bike had collided with your child and killed them due to the fathers negligence and sheer stupidity? Would you still feel compassion and say "oh it was a mistake any parent could make"

And yes he lost his child,( or his child lost HER life) but it WAS his fault.

excellent post theladyevenstar. Yes, I wonder what the reaction would be had this man's daughter lost control of the quad bike and killed another innocent child? After all, the outcome would be the same - ie one child dead. Would people still be feeling compassionate and agreeing with him that it was just the kind of mistake anyone could make? And do we extend that and say that, of course, driving over the limit is illegal, but hey, it's an easy mistake to make and if you happen to kill someone through your decision then, well, it's one of those things, no point regretting it. The laws are in place for a reason FGS, to PROTECT LIFE.
And yes, I can quite understand that the father is probably saying things that he won't remember, and the tabloids will put their spin on things anyway, but with all due repsect that's not the point here. The point is that a child's life has been lost in a way that was no accident or terrible illness or natural disaster, but in a completely avoidable way.

I think there is a lot of terror in our own responses to things like this - in mine anyway.
I feel for this family, I wouldn't wish what they are going through on any one person who has ever lived.

I have views on the wisdom of what they did - and the horror of losing a child means that I sort of mentally tick off in my mind the list of things that I can, I hope prevent happening to him. I think there is something that sounds smug about saying 'that wouldn't happen to my child', but it might be simply the presumed relief: "I can tick that one of the endless list of things I fear, things I can't control, or the sort of slip-ups, omissions, wrong decisions and accidents that lead me to think 'there but for the grace of God go I"

And I think it is unspeakable that the papers have attempted to approach the family, and would not judge them on anything reported to have been said. The very day it was first reported, newspapers were saying 'a freind of the family answered the door...' - they were knocking on the family's door the day after it happened????

Even- personally I can't understand the decision they made, but I don't think they 'deliberately' put their child at risk, but that they imagined that there was little or no risk.