Ok, driving home from work – I see a family of four – two young parents (early thirties) and two toddlers in their car going in the same direction as me. The toddlers are standing on the back seat with their heads pressed against the windows, obviously not in any form of child seat, or even a seatbelt.
I pulled up along side the car and kindly rolled down my window and said “excuse me…” to the female in the passenger seat who had her window rolled down. She gave me a stink-eye and rolled up her window. The car continued on in busy traffic with the children standing up in the back seat.
I took the plate number and called the cops, told them where the car was and they said they would put out a broadcast to their units to look for it.
My coworkers this morning were kind of shocked that I did this. As if it were none of my business. I think it is my business. First off, people don’t know how to drive period. Its only a matter of time before someone rear ends their shitty little car and the kids head goes through a window. The children don’t know any better. It is the parents who are stupid here and endangering their children. And they can’t even say they dont have the proper equipment – you could see the booster seats through the window.
Did I overstep my “humane duty” by reporting these slack ass parents? I don’t think I would be able to sleep at night if I didn’t do anything…
—damned if you do…
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2009.
good for you!! *claps*
Maybe they were time travelling and thought they had pierced the space-time continuim to the 1950s. No wonder you got the ‘stink eye’ – man, I love that term.
But with all the time wasted on these standing kids, you were letting possible hookers off scott-free!
My cat gives my mom the stink eye when she comes to visit as if to say “she’s MINE, bitch, get your own slave.”
So on the topic at hand: I don’t think you did anything wrong, OP. These dumbass parents would be the first to cry “WHY ME WHY ME???” when the kid dies or is critically injured in a simple fender bender because they were buckled in.
Jesus christ, put a seatbelt on your effing kids, asshats.
You did the right thing. If the worst case scenario had happened, your coworkers would be saying how irresponsible some parents are and how wrong it is no one stopped them.
Do you really think the OP would have stopped their behavior? The parent’s are likely to run right out and buy a car seat because some random person bitched them out at a stop light. Calling the cops was an OK idea, but probably just a waste of time. Those kids are probably fucked either way. If it’s not the lack of seatbelts that kill them it will be some other negligent act by their parents.
While I agree “those kids are probably fucked either way”, if their parents care so little about car safety – OP totally did the right thing. Children are to be properly restrained in an age appropriate carseat/booster until the age of 9 in this province, amongst other criteria. To say nothing of what pediatricians recommend. There was once a great set of ads out making people aware about child/car safety that showed a picture of a child NOT in a car seat with a heading along the lines of “it might not look like it, but this is child abuse”, and they’re right. Calling the cops might not magically solve THIS situation, but I guarantee that the associated fines and general embarrassment of being pulled over by a cop for being such a shitty parent would probably startle the negligence right out of them. Or perhaps they should be forced to sit down and watch some crash test videos. I think that’d fix it.
Gawd, I would have done the same thing. You know what I did one time? Called the po’s on this idiot who was zooming down a hill on his bike, dragging his BABY in this attachable little cart thing. For fuck’s sake, I know they’re legal now, but those things ought to be raped and murdered in court. It only takes one tiny swerve for the two of them to fly head on into oncoming traffic. I don’t think anything makes me more furious, other than Michelle Obama’s incisors.
What always puzzled me about those little bike carts is that they’re so low, the kid could easily take a hit from the nearest car’s exhaust pipe. How fucked is that?
Fucked enough to warrant a bitch slap into another dimension.
um , there is nothing wrong with them cart things. I use them. I don’t use them on busy street’s going 90 miles an hour..but they have shit built into them for safety i.e..I fall, cart/ chariot safe.
I love biking, and I’d much rather use a chariot that has safety measures in place in case I wipe out then some seat attached to my bike that falls with me.
Well done. Just think how you would feel if you turned on your TV or picked up the Herald to discover a terrible accident had killed or injured the kids.
Turning a blind eye is not an option, the more people speak out about unacceptable behaviour the better our society will be.
Silence begets approval.
Like others have said, you did the right thing. I’m surprised, though, that you told your coworkers about it. People in general distrust informers, and quite frankly, that’s how quite a few folks would characterize what you did. They’d agree in principle that the parents were f**ked, but few of them would call the cops on someone. Don’t be surprised if coworkers clam up a bit for the next while.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people. I like informers, as long as it’s reporting of illegal and/or criminal behaviour, or reporting of hazardous situations, to proper authorities. But most people don’t.
I’ve had casual conversations with friends and acquaintances on some occasions, where we talk about narking, and I’ll flat out state that if I knew that a buddy committed a serious criminal act – aggravated assault, rape, murder, theft – I’d give them a few days to turn themselves in or I’d do it for them. Can’t say I’ve lost any friends over my attitude, but no doubt some acquaintances are less likely to confide in me about their doings – tough shit.
But for something like this I’d probably just tell my Mom. 🙂 Definitely not my coworkers.
You really freak if you were out here in the country & seen my kid sitting in my lap & driving the truck while I was working the pedals… althought to be fair neither of us was drinking !
My Dad did it for me & my brothers, uncles did to, my grandfather used to let us drive the tractor & he walked along side ! ! !
Tell me all of you politically/safety correct persons.Once you regulated,re-regulated & over inforced stupidity in the name of ‘safety’on everything…
When are you all going to get moving on legislating supervisors into your homes to make sure your getting into & out of bed safely ? Hold your penis for you too make sure you don’t drip on the floor, or >gasp< the seat ? I wanna cut my sandwich into 2 pieces …but the supervisor isn’t here to watch me use the knife ! ! !
LOL More, right on!
What amazes me is that I grew up in an age where I could ride my bike with no helmet, drive in the back of a station wagon all the way from NS to Florida with no seatbelt on, and ride a toboggan down the hill without hockey gear on and I am actually still ALIVE today!! Unreal.