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.
  • PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de
    123·
    1 day ago

    The thing is, once car-centrism is established and normalized, it’s so hard to explain to people what the real problem is. Clearly the kid did a stupid thing and ran into the road when it shouldn’t. Clearly the driver had no bad intentions.

    But somehow the thought never occurs to people that kids (and adults) will always be stupid and we shouldn’t strive to make a world where nobody makes mistakes. We should strive to make a world where making mistakes doesn’t kill you.

    • TAG@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 minutes ago

      I agree that we should strive to make the world as safe as possible, but people need to take some responsibility for not putting themselves in danger and teaching their kids how to do so as well. If it was not a car, it could have been a bus, a trolley, or a heavy bike (this is a small child we are talking about). The kid could have run off a cliff or fell into the stream and drowned.

      As a first generation American, I have noticed that some American parents do not teach their kids enough about how to cross the street (shocking in such a car centric society).

    • bitwolf@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4·
      8 hours ago

      Agreed. As I read this I pictured the four lane stroad they likely had to cross.

      If the roads were safer for pedestrians they’d be able to walk around without dying.

    • Broadfern@lemmy.worldEnglish
      532·
      1 day ago

      EDIT: Leaving this up for clarity, but I did in fact read the wrong link from the post. The above commenter is correct. Carry on and have a good day.

      Clearly the driver had no bad intentions.

      I hate to break it to you, but:

      Jerry Guy, the man who hit the family and never stopped, reportedly admitted drinking “a little” alcohol earlier in the day. He also admitted to being on painkillers and being partially blind in one eye.

      Guy had been convicted of two previous hit and run accidents. He pleaded guilty to the hit and run that took A.J.'s life and served six months in jail.

      In a world without cars this man wouldn’t have killed a child with his decisions. But this is still gross negligence, especially the multiple hit-and-run charges.

      I do agree that if anything this is a great case for pushing public transit and eliminating car centrism. But to not stop/pull over, multiple times, is its own level of selfishness.

      • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
        102·
        1 day ago

        I agree that “intentions” is a very weak way to put it, but there’s nothing indicating this driver did anything wrong either. It’s horrendous that the parents got charged, but the child “went between crosswalks”, which I take to mean going diagonally at an intersection. It’s plausible that the driver was doing everything right by traffic law and didn’t have enough time to react.

        (Note that the case Broadfern quoted is a different one, I guess to illustrate the point that “intentions” are beyond the point.)

          • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
            3·
            1 day ago

            Like Broadfern, you clicked on the far worse Atlanta case from 2011 linked in the post body as a related case, not the 2025 NC case linked from the title.

        • Broadfern@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          1 day ago

          The case discussed is directly related to the child, but the driver rather than the mother. The child’s name is A.J. Newman, and his mother is Raquel Nelson.

          My point is that the driver never pulled over, which is after-the-fact negligence. Accidents absolutely happen and I blame 90% of this on the infrastructure.

          My own biases lead me to believe the charges leveled against a grieving mother are primarily rooted in racism and/or misogyny, and the stark difference in trials adds insult to injury.

          That said, I do agree with you on your primary point. It’s an awful, largely unavoidable mix of current circumstances that boil down to car-centrism. The only way out going forward is to completely change the infrastructure to be safer, and while it will be a fight it can be done.

          EDIT: My apologies, you’re right. Different link, but from the same post.

          • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
            3·
            1 day ago

            The case you’re talking about is 2011. This article is a recent case where I see no indication of Jerry Guy’s involvement. The 2011 case is way worse since Guy did have wrongdoing and the mother was with children, but that doesn’t mean the 2025 case’s driver is at fault, which is what PotatoesFall meant to saw when they mentioned intention.

            Edit: i wrote this before seeing your edit lol