Friday, April 28, 2006

4WD ATTACKS CHILD

In a tragic incident today in Perth a toddler was backed over and killed after wandering onto the driveway of his grandparents' home. The vehicle, as shown on Channel 7 News, was a small imported sedan of unspecified make, model and year. There appear to be no online reports of this unfortunate accident.

Reporting on a similarly unfortunate incident in Sydney, the Sydney Morning Herald gives us this:
4WD knocks down toddler

A four-year-old boy has suffered severe head injuries after he was hit by a 4WD in Sydney's west, police say.

The boy was crossing Delhi Street in Lidcombe just before 11.30am when he was struck by a 2001 Toyota Prada.

He lay unconscious on the road with blood coming from his mouth as onlookers dialled Triple-0, a spokeswoman for the NSW Ambulance Service said.
Now if the vehicle had been chasing the little fella through the bush or down the beach it would probably be relevant to mention it's a 4WD but in the context of this article it's nothing more than anti-SUV points scoring. Oh yeah, a four year-old isn't a toddler.

Editing note: For clarity, "imported car" was changed to "imported sedan".

3 Comments:

Anonymous Steve said...

JF, hate to disagree with you, but I seem to recall that the emphasis on it being a 4WD was related to warnings from safety experts that their additional height does make it generally harder to see further behind the vehicle (at low levels) than in a shorter car. (Even if no car allows you to see a toddler standing behind it right next to the rear bumper, a higher car may have a worse line of sight for one standing, say, a few meters behind it.) This new case shows any car can kill a toddler, but that doesn't detract from a legitmate warning if low level rear view in 4WDs is generally worse.

7:14 AM  
Anonymous Steve said...

Oh my god..forget my last post. Completely. For some inexcuseable reason, I thought the second story related to an older one about 4WDs reversing over kids. I wasn't feeling well yesterday, is all I can say.

6:22 AM  
Anonymous T said...

A "2001 Toyota Prada"? In Sydney's west...?

3:28 PM  

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