Friday, March 16, 2012

Put Your Car in Park!!

Today as I was driving home I noticed a woman driving with one hand and scooping something off the car floor with the other. I couldn't help the horrific memory that washed over me.

I was twelve years old and walking to the corner store. Ahead of me was a babysitter pushing a young child in a stroller.
At the corner a woman had stopped her car at the light and she took that moment to reach for something on the floor. Her foot slipped off the break and on to the gas and her car shot forward over the the baby and the stroller.

For hours and hours afterward we heard the agonized screams of that baby's father.
I can't imagine the torment the driver has suffered over this thoughtless tragedy. I know that for me the memory is as vivid as the actual experience.

The rule: if you are going to reach for anything in your car - stop, put the car in park and do what you need to do. NEVER EVER believe that you can just this one time reach over a pick up whatever has slid form the seat.

I know I have written about this before - but it all came back to me today once again.

2 comments:

Pat said...

Juat recently we have had children returning from a school trip killed in a coach crash. The only explanation seems to be that the coach driver was trying to change a DVD. Such a tragedy.

One Woman's Journey - a journal being written from Woodhaven - her cottage in the woods. said...

You are so right
am ashamed to say
"I have done this several time"
Never again!