Vent: I absolutely HATE stupidity! Not ignorance.....STUPIDITY!!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

5-month-old baby sent from the clinic 10 miles away for a respiratory workup. Baby arrived in an infant carrier with a heavy furry blanket over him. Remove that blanket and find Baby resting on top of another one....with the seat's safety straps under that! After eval and treatment, as part of his discharge, I spoke with mom via an interpreter about the carrier and the child safety seat law. First the mom lies and says that she put the blanket under Baby when they got to the hospital. I confronted her on that and she just laughed. When I asked her if she knew what the law was, she was able to recite it. Her brother drove her and Baby to the ER and he tried to excuse it by saying "I'm a very safe driver."

I am so tired of the stupidity, and stupidity is just what it is. Just around Thanksgiving there was an SUV rollover, with a 2-month-old ejected and killed. Two older kids in the car were badly injured, as well as the grandma. The baby's mom was driving down the freeway, Grandma was in the back seat changing baby's diaper, and the two older kids were in seats but improperly restrained.

There is no excuse for this....in this county all medicaid moms who get prenatal care go through a program and get free strollers and corificeats, and they're taught how to use those corificeats.

How many more children have to die before this stops???

I completly agree with the law requiring parents to safely secure their children in a vehicle. Any child under 18 in a car should be required.

I don't, however, agree with adult seat belt laws. I think they are just another case of laws overstepping their bounds. Now mind you, I am fanatical about wearing my seat belt and I won't start the car unless everyone with me is buckled up. That said, I also don't believe that the police or any other goverment body has the right to "make" me. If people choose to endanger their own lives in their own vehicle that is their right, they just don't have the right to endanger their children's.

As far as saving stupid people's lives, I'm all for a little Darwinistic thinning of the gene pool. There are far to many of them running around as it is(j\k).

When someone dies or is disabled in a collision, it's not just the victim who is affected.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

I think when you get a reaction like that is when you take down the tag number on the vehicle as you help them back into the car and call the police when you get back near a phone. At least you know you have done your job and reported a child in an unsafe situation. It comes close to abuse, not far from leaving a child unattended at home or in a vehicle. So i guess you could say if you wanted to get REALLY technical, we would be mandated to report a parent not using proper restraints with an infant that cannot protect itself.

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

My sons are 21 and 26 and they rode in corificeats until they were 6 years old!

However, I remember to this day, how, when my father purchased a brand-new shiny 1964 Plymouth Valiant - he cut the seat belts out of it, saying "no government was going to tell him what to do in his car!"

Folks are smarter now - we learn from our mistakes. Well, some of us do anyway!

Pets also should secured in the car. I know of one wreck where the dog was jumping from seat to seat. The driver was distracted and he pulled out in front of a semi. Seven lives were lost. The youngest was 1 year old. The family was moving to another state to begin a new life.

Another instance involved a dog riding loose in the back of a pick-up with no tail gate. The driver slammed on the brakes. The dog flew out of the truck and landed on the hood of the vehicle following behind. The lab broke the windshield upon impact. Thankfully no one (including the dog) was hurt.

There have also been cases where the cat or small dog has gotten tangled up in the gas and/or brake pedal and caused a wreck or a near miss.

Treat the pets like childern in the car----restrain them.

Fuzzy

Specializes in Peds Cardiology,Peds Neuro,Pedi ER,PICU, IV Jedi.

Having been a field medic for a number of years I learned very quickly just what happened when people refused to buckle themselves / their loved ones up with the seat belts. As much as I love working a good trauma...I hate to see it happen due to absolute stupidity.

Babies ejected and crushed, teens thrown from the backs of pickups, adults bounced around inside their own cars like pinballs during a collision. And all because their ignorance allowed them to think that they were actually safer without the belt. America, land of the free...home of the .....

Educate them. Then educate them again.

Jelli_ Belle I have to disagree with you on your post about requiring adults to be buckled in their seat belts.

As adults we serve as examples for children and teenagers alike. Seeing our "good" behaviors enforces them and shows the younger generation that it's okay to do them...even if it's not considered "cool".

The laws are written to protect humans from themselves. Given the choice, most of us wouldn't buckle up if we didn't have hard data in our memories of exactly what could happen if we didn't buckle up. Many people are blessed enough not to have to see the interior of a 26 year old's cranial vault after being ejected from his Camaro. The bottom line is that while many feel this is "threatening" or a "infringement on their rights as citizens"...the fact is that, in this situation anyway, the governmental bodies are trying to protect us from harm.

Wearing seat belts cuts down on many things, preventing injury means that they don't have to be flown in to a Level I trauma center...they only had to go see a Prompt Care clinic for that leg laceration. It keeps more money in state coffers as well for more funding for other projects...and anything that adds to the state's budget means more money for each person, less taxes, better services for all.

Disagree if you must, but the facts are that we're all a lot better off with these laws in place.

vamedic4

VAMedic, you said it way better than I could, thanks.

My brother would have survived with nothing more than whiplash had he been belted in...not even a bruise. There was absolutely no interior damage to his vehicle....none.

Specializes in Peds Cardiology,Peds Neuro,Pedi ER,PICU, IV Jedi.
Florida is one of them.

I try very hard to stay away from motorcycles, especially if the riders are not wearing helmets. I realize that the riders might have the "right" to splatter their brains all over the pavement, I just would rather they didn't do it in front of my car.

Angie...this bothers me as well. As a motorcyclist from 1990-2003 I was very happy with helmet laws. Virginia has had helmet laws on the books for many , many years so I never could go anywhere without one..until I got here to Texas. Someone was crazy enough to think that giving bikers "freedom" to ride without a helmet was actually a good idea. Makes me wonder what some elected officials are thinking. Anyway...

vamedic4 ;)

Specializes in OB.

what i dont understand is how people get away with riding in the back of pickup trucks! I have seen so many filled with kids going to the beach etc.. if the driver slams on the brakes, they will all pop outta there like basketballs and land who knows where! why dont people get ticketed for that??

Specializes in Hospice, Med/Surg, ICU, ER.

My family and I are religious r/t the use of safety restraints in a motor vehicle.

Early on New Year's Day, my wife (ETOH free) and two small children were in a wreck. Her truck, a GMC 4-door Canyon, was totaled.... down to the size of a Civic.

Wife had a broken finger; kids unscratched. The police and rescue folks were astounded that NOBODY was fatally injured

Moral of the story: proper restraints saved three lives - just like that.

Specializes in LTC/Skilled Care/Rehab.

I have seen kids jumping around in the back of cars numerous times. It makes me so mad. I even saw someone driving with their 3-year-old (or around that age) standing in the front seat. My DD just recently got out of her car seat at age 8. And she would have stayed in for longer if the booster seat didn't get too small for her. Many of her classmates ride in the front seat when they aren't supposed to until age 12. My step-dad would have died in a car crash if he wasn't wearing his seatbelt, so I know how important seatbelts are.

Specializes in OB.
My family and I are religious r/t the use of safety restraints in a motor vehicle.

Early on New Year's Day, my wife (ETOH free) and two small children were in a wreck. Her truck, a GMC 4-door Canyon, was totaled.... down to the size of a Civic.

Wife had a broken finger; kids unscratched. The police and rescue folks were astounded that NOBODY was fatally injured

Moral of the story: proper restraints saved three lives - just like that.

those seat belts and that big pickup! I am a pickup girl too, once ran over a very large bear and barely got a bump on the side panel. Love the big heavy vehicles WITH everyone seat belted in. My daughter is almost 8 and still in her booster seat. Might keep her in it till she is 10 :)

Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

When someone exercises their right to NOT wear their seatbelt, they violate my right for my tax dollars to go to something besides their care as a vegetable in some convelescent center from their brain injury.

These are public safety laws, same goes for helmets.

So, yes it goes beyond personal rights. Just like mandatory insurance laws so that if I smash up someones car I SHOULD have insurance in place to cover these losses. How dare them tell me I have to pay All that car insurance every year, after all I am a safe driver.

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