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Posted on 05/22/2012 3:19:07 PM PDT by KansasGirl
A New Jersey dad got the scare of his life when his 5-year-old son almost ran off a steep embankment, and though the man saved the boy from falling, he couldn't stop his Jeep from going over the precipice and into a river below.
Frank Roder, a construction worker from the town of Winfield Park, had taken his son, Aidan, down to the Rahway River to feed ducks Thursday. But when he stopped briefly before settling on a parking space, the impatient boy jumped out and took off -- straight toward a ledge 35 feet above the river, Roder recalled.
"He hopped out, and I thought that was OK, I was just going to park," Roder, 38, said, but "he just took off, made a beeline for the edge."
The panic-stricken father jumped out of the cab of his 2006 Jeep Commander and raced after the errant boy, catching him just feet from the edge.
That's when Aidan, eyes as big as saucers, looked behind Roder and said, "Um, Daddy ..."
Roder turned in time to see the Jeep nosedive down the embankment and land in the muddy water.
Snip
He was counting his blessings when a young cop approached him and handed him two tickets. One was for failure to produce the insurance card, which was somewhere in the waterlogged cab. The other was for failing to use his emergency brake.
"I couldn't believe it," Roder said. "He said, 'If you would have taken the five seconds to apply the brake, this never would have happened!'
"I say, 'Really? And if I did and my boy stepped over the edge and fell instead of the Jeep, then were would I be?' He says, 'Jail, for child endangerment.'"
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
A properly trained five year old does not unbuckle and jump out of the car without permission.
if the motors running when the dad lets him
So who’s the U-boat commander?
I agree totally.
Must be nice to have perfect kids. All the five year olds I have known could be quite unpredictable when they got excited.
And that has nothing to do with my point, which was that he could easily have been in the proper car seat and have gotten out.
None of this smells right. A kid who should have been strapped in gets out above a 35 foot cliff where they were going to feed the ducks? Frankly, if a car can roll down the hill into the water and still start, it’s not exactly a steep, life threatening drop - more like the kind of thing I’d have jumped off at that age just for fun. I’ll bet a dollar the guy either forgot to put it in park or set the brake and he cooked up this story to save face. “Just don’t tell mommy...”
Less damage than if the cop’s co-workers spend three days dragging the river for the kid’s body.
(I’m hoping that you forgot to take the 5 sec. to set your “/sarcasm” tag)
99.9% of the police are a-holes. Sanctioned looting of the taxpayers.
I'd take the tickets but the cops are nuts in this case!!
I didn’t see a sign that says, ‘no trespassing’ or ‘no parking’...Why the ticket???
Failure to use parking brake = you just caused a lot of people a pain in the arse getting you ride out of that river
Failure to produce insurance = Cop is an a**hole revenue generator and a good little jack boot for the state.
Any chance the story about having to save child was made up?
Not perfect. We just take the time to train them in basic safety and to respect certain hard fast rules because otherwise their naturally unpredictable behavior could lead to tragedy. It's not rocket surgery. But I know that many parents feel differently about such things and as I said, natural selection sometimes comes into play as a consequence of laissez faire parenting.
By the way, I don't blame the kid. The father is obviously a fool. At least his idiocy resulted in comedy rather than tragedy.
The guy let his car crash into the river. They should have ticketed him for Driving While Stupid.
Are you a cop?
Failure to produce insurance = No fine, just show the court your insurance papers.
Failure to Control Vehicle = Could have been a big fine.
No boating permit. No life vests.
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