Parents are charged after their son, 7, is struck dead in a car accident
www.nbcnews.com
Gastonia, N.C., police charged the parents with involuntary manslaughter charges after allowing the victim and his brother to walk home alone from a nearby grocery store.
  • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
    225·
    1 day ago

    A history isn’t needed, the child is seven years old, that’s all that’s needed.

    Seven year olds are not nearly old enough to wander around 4 lane busy roads unsupervised, full stop.

    That’s blatant negligence, there’s no getting past that.

    • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
      7·
      18 hours ago

      Seven year olds are not nearly old enough to wander around 4 lane busy roads unsupervised, full stop.

      He was with his older brother, who is 10.

      And if a 10 year old is perfectly capable of walking to school (literally according to everyone), a 7 year old with their 10 year old brother should also be perfectly fine walking TWO BLOCKS without the worry of being killed by a driver.

      And 4 lane roads should be banned in urban centers. It’s fucking ridiculous to have a goddamn highway in an area where children and families should be able to walk home safely!

      • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
        1·
        12 hours ago

        And if a 10 year old is perfectly capable of walking to school (literally according to everyone), a 7 year old with their 10 year old brother should also be perfectly fine walking TWO BLOCKS without the worry of being killed by a driver.

        …No…

        A 10 year old is not old enough to be responsible for a 7 year old, full stop. Most experts consider around 12 to 13 the minimum maturity for a child to be capable of being responsible for another child. 10 is definitely too young to be looking after another kid, wtf are you talking about.

        I really hope you don’t have kids…

        • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
          1·
          3 hours ago

          The experts say:

          National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (UK)

          Every child is different – but some schools advise children under 8 shouldn’t walk home without an adult or older sibling. SOURCE

          Ottawa Safety Council (Walk Alone Program, Canada)

          … a good guideline for starting to think about letting your child walk alone is age 10. SOURCE

          American Academy of Pediatrics (USA)

          Children usually are ready to walk to school without an adult when they are in fifth grade or around 10 years old. SOURCE

          They also put this poster together:

          Every country has the same general consensus.

          I really hope you don’t have kids…

          Kids and grandkids. And I was also once a kid with a younger sibling. And I see young kids walking to our local school on a regular bases.

          If someone is still walking their teenager to school, they should probably stop 😮

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            1·
            17 minutes ago

            Kids shouldn’t be raising kids.

            Fuck cars, but 10 year old children shouldn’t have to be responsible for other children. They shouldn’t have any responsibilities yet.

          • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
            1·
            28 minutes ago

            Reread what you wrote.

            A 10 year old being able to walk home is not the same as that 10 year old also being responsible for a 7 year old

            This isn’t rocket science.

          • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
            1·
            22 minutes ago

            “Should be able to” doesn’t mean jack shit in terms of fault here.

            The reality is, it wasnt safe. Yeah, it would be nice if it was safe.

            But it wasn’t safe, and any parent that isn’t a negligent idiot would know it’s not safe, this is literally the Fuck Cars lemmy, so you should know how dangerous a 4 lane road is.

            And thus you should know not to let your kids out unsupervised near one.

            I don’t give a shit how safe we would like ot to be, the functional inference of "was this mother negligent or not* isn’t based off how safe we’d like it to be

            It’s functional of how safe/dangerous it actually is at the time.

            It’s like if a mother let’s her kids play unsupervised in a fucking hurricane and you try and argue “well there shouldn’t be a hurricane”

            No one should give a shit, there very clearly, obviously, and demonstratebly was a fucking hurricane, so don’t fucking let your kids play in it. Don’t be a fucking dumb ass, supervise your children in potentially dangerous situations.

            If this was some like a quiet neighborhood 1.5 lane sleepy street I’d be on the mom’s side more here.

            But it was a fucking 4 lane busy road

            Yes, that should be obviously negligent behavior to literally anyone with 2 braincells to rub together.

            Fuck cars, but also fuck negligent parents that let their kids play near fucking traffic.

      • Crankenstein@lemmy.world
        4·
        18 hours ago

        Exactly. Why are there 4 lane roads in pedestrian areas, especially so close to a school? Where is the pedestrian infrastructure so that this child could have walked safely?

        I despise how people want to shift the blame to a child just walking to school and the parents who weren’t even involved instead of the driver of a multi-ton death machine for not paying attention to pedestrians.