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

[WendyWeber]

What were they thinking of???

There are two alarmist elements to this story: the arrest of a driver on suspicion of drink/drugs offences and the 7 year old girl riding a quad bike in the dark.

However,

Even if proved not to be impaired in some way, for the car driver the road is narrow & in the glare of headlights it is hard to see something smaller and not well lit.

Children of farmers often in day-to-day life operate machinery and work and play hard. My father drove a small tractor at 8, and bigger machinery, including farm vehicles from 13. Presumably the father in this case believed he was shielding the quad bikes with his own car.

Self-righteous indignation is misplaced & it is too easy to be critical in hindsight. Will wait to see what further investigation brings.

how is it more offensive that a whole string of posts stating what a stupid decision the parents made and how the poster would never do anything like that (or words to that effect??).

Has ANYONE on this thread said they would let their 7yr (or even older!) child ride a Quad bike on an unlit road at night??? No they haven't - so on that score that was nothing to debate - I think we ALL agree on the fact the Quads being ridden on the road was illegal, and therefore this accident entirely preventable......so nothing to debate?!

hatrick - because - I have (again) annoyed and upset people by my cr*p use of English and my lack of skills when it comes to expressing myself.

QoQ old thing, I think it'd be a good move to walk away now ... there's a really good thread on dog ownership that I've joined despite not having a dog ... not to mention the Ballet Shoes thread.

Time to leave this one alone.

and by cr*p use of English I'm not talking about the swearing........

Well, clearly some people think there IS an issue to debate... maybe issues such as the effect this accident will have on the car driver involved. It appears that there might be some question of whether the driver was under the influence of drugs, but on the other hand they might be entirely innocent, and this decision will no doubt screw up their life too.

I must just thank Wendy though for her 22.06 post where at least it shows I'm right about one thing - the reasons for the thread being started......

You don't get any brownie points for that though, QOQ - it was never denied or in doubt

I think these kinds of stories are always going to end up with discussions going sour. A parent or parents making a very bad judgement call resulting in their child being put in danger.

There are those who say that the parents are suffering enough having lost a child through their own foolishness. What possible punishment could there be?

Then it starts becoming all about the parents, not the child and the whole focus shifts over to parents excusing their behaviour, decisions, choices. And it goes round and round in circles.

But a child died, and instead of thinking about the parents at all we should be thinking about how do we prevent this sort of thing happening in future. And unfortunately while there are tragic accidents and events you simply have no control over at all there are also those where, as a parent, it is your call that has led your child into this position. For other parents not to make similar mistakes lessons should be learned rather than excuses made.

There were LAWS in place to prevent this happening TIBS. I am not having a go, but there really were.

It will presumably be asked whether the parents were made aware by the seller of the quad bikes that riding on the road was illegal?

Exactly Wifi, but in this current mood of letting parents away with anything because they have lost their child it doesn't seem to matter what laws are around.

Which brings me back to the point of lessons learned.

Didn't Rik Mayall nearly kill himself on one of these things?

Yes. And Ozzy Osbourne. And 2 fatalities, and 1000 serious accidents, a year according the report.

H&S not taken nearly seriously enough as far as these things are concerned. I often see them on the road round here - full-size ones ridden by adults, and they never wear helmets!

i had understood that the driver has been released without charge, Not under the influence of drink or drugs.

horrible, terrible , tragedy

I don't recall asking for brownie points - was simply pointing out that the reason I got so annoyed and worked up was because this wasn't a thread about the tragedy of a young child dying, it was a thread designed to criticise the parents - period.

And as for 1000 serious accidents - there's more than that number of deaths each year from people riding bicycles.

And Wendy - your 23.45 post is a very good one - were the parents told that it was illegal???

Would it not be common sense to realise a 7-year-old shouldn't be in charge of anything more than a bike on a public road?

Those wee motorbike things are illegal but people still drive them, looking completely ridiculous, on the roads.

Perhaps there needs to be greater control over who can buy one of these machines. They are, after all, a motorised vehicle and as such are as lethal in the wrong hands as a car.

The Telegraph report states that the child was a "tiny little thing". Should she have been allowed on such a vehicle at all, even on private land? Would she have had the strength to control the bike if it veered off course?

Of course, if the parents ignored laws which state that no child under the age of 16 should ride them on public roads, they would possibly have ignored laws which prevent a child from riding them at all. My two elder boys have ridden quad bikes at a theme park. They had a safety talk, had to wear a helmet and elbow pads and were only allowed on a course which was surrounded by car tyres in case of an accident. They had to be a certain age and height (much greater than 7 years and certainly taller than this "tiny little thing" was).

Maybe the result of this tragedy is that others will think twice before purchasing such a machine for their children.

I'm all in favour of children being encouraged to take responsibility - up to and including for their own lives. From about 10 or 11 years old I spent many, many happy hours and days sailing around the Firth of Clyde on my own in a 9 foot long dinghy - at more or less the same time and age as my other half was riding alone around Somerset on a pony.

However ... for this to work it is essential that the child can (a) recognize and (b) control the risk. We don't - or at least I don't - have any idea what the quad bike in this case was like. Some of them, as I understand it, are restricted so they can only do 10mph or so, and I expect there are plenty of 7 year old who could handle them perfectly competently.

In this case I think the mistake wasn't the bikes - it was the road, and the road at night, because the risks there are just too high and outwith the control of the child.

I think there are a number of interesting points here. Yes, hopefully the parents were given full information about the quad bike when they purchased it. Although we can't know for certain, I would strongly suspect that if it were purchased through a 'proper'route (ie not some dodgy second hand dealer) then yes, they would have been given plenty of info about it, because the retail regulations in this country are very stringent. Just look at the average item you pick up in the shops - eg every plastic bag has a health warning on it. But that aside, it is the responsibility of the PARENTS to inform themselves fully of the law and to abide by it. Ignorance is no defence! Anyone deciding to buy a quad bike for a 7 year old surely has a duty to ensure that it is properly used. Another post mentioned on here that the car driver has been released without charge. If this is the case and they are entirely blameless, then I think it proves even more why this sort of thread is important as it gives an opportunity to people to voice their views. Imagine if that were your partner, or son, or daughter driving the car. Their life will be changed forever too; they will probably have flashbacks, maybe suffer from depression etc - in other words, an appalling decision like that made by the parents of the young girl will have a huge ripple effect.

inthegutter - would you mind using the other thread to discuss this - I (and Carrie at HQ) are hoping that this particular thread disappears off active convo's......

this is such a sad and pointless death. No winners anywhere.It is a terrible accident - one decision which has had catastrophic and life changing repercussions. I do feel very sorry for the parents, however stupid their decision may have been. At no point would they have thought ' I wonder if our daughter will be killed by some drunken driver'. I also feel sorry for the driver of the car- slightly - this whole event is a perfect example of why drinking/using drugs and driving is so wrong( if the drinking allegations turn out to be true).

Where did you get 1000 from, QOQ?

There were 148 deaths of pedal cyclists in 2005 (can't find 2006) - serious injuries 2212. And there are a lot more pushbikes on the roads than quad bikes. The accident rate per road mile must be far higher for these things.

The driver was not drunk or on drugs, donnie - Mail today - she is another victim in this.

Apparently the child didn't appear badly injured initially and was taken home - her condition deteriorated later when she was taken to hospital.

By littlelapin on Thu 27-Dec-07 21:36:58

A hundred images pass through my mind...

Poor, poor girl. At 7 y.o.?? Judging? Well Boco said it all further down.

Would I let dd aged 7 ride a small car anywhere?? Are you MAD??

BBC article - not yet stated if the driver was under the influence, just that she was arrested on suspicion and has been bailed until the New Year. However some newspapers say that she was not found to have been drinking/taking drugs. I guess all that is yet to be decided.

So the only thing we know for certain is that the children were illegally driving quad bikes on a public road, with their parents permission and knowledge.

Poor child Poor family Poor driver

BUT the point remains that the children were illegally on those bikes in that location and should never have been there in the first place. And had they not been there the accident would not have occured.

The parents will know this and will have to live with this fact every day from there on in. They will know that they judged wrongly and that others will judge them accordingly too. They will have a lot to live with, regardless of whether they are criminally charged are not.

Should they be charged? I don't know to be honest. The driver may wish to press for charges possibly - depends on damage/injuries they may have sustained as a result (if found to not be driniking/drugs). Some may want them charged as an example to others. I don't think going to prison would be the answer, but they do need to know that they did wrong and take responsibility for their own misjudgement in this case - however, I suspect they already do, how wouldn't?