It must be common knowledge by now that when some people hear our sirens or see our blue lights they do incredibly stupid things. So it must come as no surprise that when I approached a large roundabout on blue lights, a car already travelling round it slammed on it’s anchors at the very last minute.
Under normal circumstances this would not be an issue . . . I had preempted their move and slowed to a crawl before reaching the roundabout. They had stopped. Neither of us hit each other and no other vehicles were involved.
However, as the driver slammed hard on his brakes I watched in horror as the little girl sitting in the passenger seat was launched forward like a cannon ball into the windscreen.
She wasn’t wearing her seat belt.
Just like in a film it all happened in slow motion. Her whole body was thrown up and forward, her feet coming level with the driver’s head. But miraculously she was saved from ejection and certain death only by the thankful lack of speed. Instead she bounced off the windscreen and fell back into her seat.
I came to a halt in front of them, wound down my window and let the driver have both barrels.
“SEAT BELT!! SEAT BELT!! GET THAT BLOODY SEAT BELT ON HER!!!”
The driver reacted by throwing his arms up and pointing at the seat belt attached to him. His declaration was blissfully ignorant . . .
“I’VE GOT MY FUCKING SEAT BELT ON!! FUCK YOU!!!”
The little girl however, got the message. Balling her eyes out and terrified she got her seat belt on in a second.
I decided to leave it at that and continue on. The driver was a fool and the poor girl was clearly traumatized enough. He wouldn’t have listened to anything. And my ire would have only exacerbated his ignorance. It was best I just move on.
However, it still remains one of my biggest bug bares of working in London – people not wearing their seat belts. Part of me still believes though, that if you make that conscious decision as an adult NOT to wear one, then it should be your prerogative. However, when it involves a child, there is no excuse. Buckle them up! Not to do so is wrong. Very wrong.
But I see it in London more and more these days. Everyone does. Over packed cars. New born children held on laps. Children climbing over seats. Even tiny tots climbing onto the dash board! Basically, parents being ignorant fools!
Much that you think you should leave these people to Natural Selection, you can’t. But you don’t ever want to be that medic that arrives on scene to the inevitable fatality either. So what can you do? Not much really – and most of the time we just shake our heads and curse their fool hardiness.
I just wish we could be allowed though, just once in a while, to drag these fools from their cars and . . . and . . . rattle their necks.
So please, to those fools out there whom are guilty of this inexcusable and heinous crime, please . . . buckle your kids up.
Binder
Madness!
There must be some way to ‘name and shame’ these people.
This failure in the parents’ duty of care is no different then failing to teach them how to cross the road, ride a bike safely (with a helmet!) or the dangers of jumping into open water (I had to pull a child out of the lake last week!)
It’s every day Ross. Can’t keep up with it all
Hiya Boy,I cant believe what I just read. If what you say in your story is true then our fellow Great Britons are even stupider than I thought (I assumed not even an idiot would allow a child to be in a car without a seat belt, let alone climb around ect) Did we just go through a time warp, am I back in the 70s or something? XX
Nuts hey Mikki. Classic excuse is “It’s ok, I’m a good driver” . . . like that accounts for the billions of bad drivers out there
What really annoys me more than anything is parents ensuring they have their seatbelt on, but leaving the kids to roam free in the back of the car.
Pretty much the case here – except it was the front. Nightmare!
You should have dragged him out the car and kicked the living shit out of him for being such a twat (Joke!), or at least done a citizens arrest, but then I guess you had a more important emergancy to attend and thankfully this incident did not need an ambulance!
Darwins evolution theory in action (assuming it was his kid) slowly tuning out human stupidity by the stupid culling themselves and thier kids! (i.e. the stupid genes) (JOKE!!)