As I drive for work making deliveries hither & yon, I see a lot of interesting things. Believe me, I see a lot. I see nose-pickers, texters, broken down vehicles, hitchhikers, divas singing their hearts out, & truck drivers who honk & wave at every female. It can be quite a show, let me tell you!
Today I took a little 145 mile round trip & I saw several things.
I saw the bottom of my coffee cup WAY before I wanted to. I think I was only about 20 minutes into the drive. So very sad...
Then I saw this. The contents of a truck strewn all over the median. It must have been a couple pallets of copy paper. I could see the pallets, the paper, & the broken cases. This is definitely the evidence of someone's bad day.
Then I saw these two lovelies. You know the day is a stinker when your truck is twisted up or just mudded into the median. Bad day, bad day, bad day...I'm ever grateful that the vehicle I drive for work is just a Pontiac Vibe. I don't think I could handle one of these big mamas. I would end up in the median A LOT!
But the most perplexing thing I saw today I couldn't get a picture of. It happened too fast & I would have had to pick my jaw up off of the floor. I was tooling along, minding my own business when I glimpsed a black conversion van coming up on my left side to pass. I glanced up as the van drew even with me & saw an Amish woman in the passenger seat holding a baby. Yep, I said she was HOLDING a baby. She was reading the child a book. I couldn't believe my eyes. They drove right on by & I wondered if there was anything I should do? I checked my speedometer & I had my cruise control set on 71 mph. The speed limit was 65. That van passed me in a matter of seconds so I'm going to guess that he had to be going at least 10 miles per hour over the limit. I called my mom because that's what moms are for. I asked, "Should I call 911? What would the police do?" We discussed it & decided that there really wasn't anything we could do. I was afraid that if I did call the police that they would call social services or something & I don't want to be responsible for anything crazy going down. But my conscience was really troubled because that baby was definitely in a dangerous position. The van had Ohio plates so they had already covered some major ground today because they passed me in Illinois. The whole situation just left me feeling *ugh*
What would you have done? Anything or nothing?
3 comments:
I would not have called. By the time the Police would have caught up to them, the baby could be properly "returned" to a car seat. Therefore it is your word against theirs. I don't think that a police officer can pull over a vehicle for that type of violation. There are levels of traffic violations. Ones that you can get stopped by an officer. Ones that can be added onto another offense. Depends on the state laws. You would have to google your state laws about child restraints to see if an officer can pull someone over for that. Yes, it is disturbing. I see it A LOT here in PA. You just pray that nothing happens to the child. But then I also remember VERY clearly holding my newborn brother as we drove home from the hospital. (This was to console me because I was mad about his gender.) We survived. No carseat does not mean instant death. Not the smartest thing. . . .but it happened.
I probably wouldn't have called either. The driver was speeding, so he may have gotten stopped before his trip was over anyway. I would have certainly prayed for the child's safety.
And, "back in the day" when I first had kids there were no car seat laws here, so I remember feeding the baby as we tootled down the road. And when I think back to the "car seats" available when I was a child, it's a wonder any of us lived to grow up. Flimsy little seats made of celluloid, (some with steering wheels!), that clipped over the back of the car's seats.
I think you guys are right. It wouldn't have served much purpose to call 911, but I absolutely did pray for that baby's safety. And you're also right, the rules have changed so dramatically in the last 30 years or so!
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