The Zohan

Girl's quad bike death investigated | UK Latest | Guardian Unlimited

7 & 10 y/o out on the road following their fathers Range Rover, girl hit head on by another RR.

Who in their right mind would allow a 7 y/o out on a public road - beggars belief

Why on earth would any normal parent allow this.

Snazy

Shocking news, and heart breaking.
Public bloody road on a day old quad bike. How much protective gear too on wonders.

Unbelievable how STUPID some parents can be. Should not be allowed kids with brains like that!

Leslie

Totally illegal actions by the children and the parents too. Mindbendingly stupid

Les

The Snug Rhino

6pm..... nice and dark as well. smart move dad.

Odds on

Whats worse, is it looks like they tried to cover it up by taking the girl home and telling the other driver to leave the scene.

David Lock

Very sad and stupid beyond belief. dl

Jaybird-UK

Lots of comments on the local brentwood news site this is total essex - news, entertainment, jobs, homes and cars

Very very stupid and very tragic accident that could easily have been avoided with a little common sense.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Unbelievable, cretinous behaviour, the mind boggles.

Nido

I'm not talking about this particular case as I know nothing about it - but as a general case there are plenty of people I know where I grew up who did such things.

Were they bad parents? No. We lived in a very rural area, and such things were part of life. Kids would be on the road from this sort of age, it's life when you live in the middle of nowhere. Accidents happen, as terrible as it is.

Kids being wrapped up in cotton wool so there is no chance of them injuring themselves whatsoever is just Life is all about calculated risks, sometimes things go wrong.

What will happen when these cotton wool kids hit the real world? Ah yes, they'll fall over, hurt their knee and demand £5,000 compensation because somebody must be at fault, accidents just don't happen in the 21st century after all

The Zohan

This is not about wrapping kids upo in cotton wool this is about taking the responsibilities as parents seriously and using common sense.

Yes, accidents do happen but this could so easily have been prevented!

allowing a 7 y/o out on the main road on a motorised quad capable of 40-60kmh. A toy that she has only had for a matter of days - following thier fathers Range Rover at dusk is stupid and foolhardy and has nothing to do with cotton wool and more to do with pi$$ poor parents!

Nido

As said I've not heard anything of the case in question, was it definitely a main road she was on?

The Zohan

just re-read, not a main road

Quote
"The children were going down a hill on a narrow country lane near the family home in Blackmore, Essex, when Elizabeth's machine was in collision with another Range Rover travelling in the opposite direction."

Not to sure what difference it would make.

Nido

In a rural area a "narrow country lane" can basically your driveway, and letting your child ride up it (supervised) is nothing out of the ordinary. If they'd taken her on the local A road then of course that would have been insanity. In a rural area there is a world of difference.

The Zohan

I have no beef with you, look, they where going in one direction and another rr was coming in the other direction, the girl ran head on into the other rr.

Not likely to be her dads driveway is it.
Not likely to be a colision at 5-10mph is it.
Not smart to let a 7 y/o out on any sort of road - she had had the bike two days FFS!

She shoudl have been of road, on thier drive or land using the vehicle, notheing wrong with that at all.

I live in the country, always have.
I have had motorbikes (from the age of 12), pushbikes, etc as well as cars.

TBH i must have had decent and responsible parents as they would not encourage me to do stupid and illegal things just because we lived in the country.

PARENTS HAVE A DUTY OF CARE TO LOOK AFTER THEIR KIDS AND MAKE THE RIGHT DECICIONS. Just because they live in the coutry does not make them special cases or exceptions to this.

The Zohan

If this had happened on a scumbag eatste, chaville would you bee so keen to defend the actions.

Lets say the kids where following dad home down a quiet street, hardly used but on thr occasion a car came the other way and killed on of the kids - would you be so keen to defend or cry chavscum unfit as parents.

I see little difference other than the location.

Nido

Paul, I think you have taken my posts the wrong way - as I put my original comment was not pertaining to this exact incident.

All I meant was whenever a child is killed people are all to quick to jump on the "bad parents" bandwagon. We don't know the facts of this case (hence why I didn't want to comment on it), it could have been a quiet lane that was more or less their drive but some pi$$ed up fool came flying down the other way and the they collided. The fact she was following the father and not out on her own shows care for a start.

What gets me is that children being protected from every possible incident (school adventure trips for example) doesn't do anybody any good in the long run.

scoobynutta555

It's utterly stupid in the extreme to allow kids to drive on any public road on a quad, even if they were wearing a helmet. I thought I read somewhere it was a national speed limit road and the other driver was not under the influence as they were arrested but not charged.

Beggars belief post 16 Comparing an incident as foolhardy as this to properly supervised school trips doesn't add up either.

Nido

If it was a pretty much unused back lane it would be classed as NSL!

I can't get across my thoughts here so I'll give up on this one, I'm not here to be arguing over the issue of some poor girls death. I'm just trying to explain that I can understand circumstances (which I have said I'm not saying these were, we don't know) where this sort of behaviour is normal.

stilover

I saw that they were very quick to arrest the Range Rover driver.
Hope they don't charge them with anything. Totally not their fault.

They should arrest they Dad instead. Arrest driver, talk to parent. WTF

scoobynutta555

Well, my property in Ireland has a 'back road nsl' running through it splitting fields. You can forget my daughter ever messing around on an uninsured, unregistered quad with my blessings.

If the parents are responsible for that girl being on an untaxed and uninsured quad then they should be prosecuted, regardless of the other drivers soberiety.

Nido

Oh FFS!!!!!

David Lock

Nido - I can see your point but you are backing the wrong horse here my friend.

This is gross irresponsibility.

When I was a kid I would ride a bike to school down some country lanes. 30 years later I refused to let my kids cycle to school simply because things have changed so much in that period. Cars whizzing along at 60, quite legally, not to mention bike eating potholes. Bad enough in the light let alone after dark. To let any age kid out on a road, in the dark, on a brand new quad bike following daddy's car is insanity. dl

jjones

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

And I believe she has since been released without charge after all tests came up negative. I would assume that shock made her reactions a little odd so she was arrested for further tests. I also read the daddy owned forty acres of land for the kids to play on, but they were on the public highway - presumably to save him having to get the trailer out.



M

Shark Man

Seems the driver of the vehicle that hit the quad was arrested for being under the influence of drink/drugs. Not that it shifts the blame, but equally a reason that in such a emergency "avoid" manouver their abilities could be affected, not that a 2tonne vehicle is very manourable on a country lane anyway (although most people drive them in a manner like a car half the weight )

So, kids on a quad bikes and drunken/drugged women driving a 2 tonne 4x4 can only be good for one person: The Funeral director.

I had a scrambler when I was 6 years old. And never once was I allowed near a public road with the thing. Precisly becuase it wasn't legal and also of the other people that use the public highway who would likely kill me if I inadvertantly got in their way. I'd like to think of that as resposible parenting - yes I had the bike, but was only allowed to use it on the scrambling tracks.

I for one think that people and retailers selling such machines such as mini-motos, mini quads as well as mini-scramblers need to taken to task for supply such vehicles that 99% of which are not road legal. There is only so many places such machines can be used, and with the mass supply/demad and cheap prices the control needs to be placed on the source...as it its currently not working with the end user who ignorantly buys the things and lets their kids use them on the road - no matter how rural.

scoobynutta555

Again, arrested but not charged as yet. I'd imagine she'd be charged straight away if there was something untoward. i have read that they are reviewing everything tomorrow.

Snazy

Cor how complex can this be for some to understand !

You dont let your kids play on the motorway, train lines or take drugs, because you care for them.
Same applies here, the road is a dangerous place, in these circumstances, I have to agree, total neglect and the parent needs charging with something.

Sad sad loss.

I also agree we live in a culture of being over protective and being a sue culture, some of the emails that go about, saying what we did as kids, and now H&S say is totally unsafe, does make you think about one thing...
How much the world has changed.

Its a dangerous society we live in, and one where extra care should be taken, but overkill does exist.

In this case, the primary act of caring and being responsible was neglected, let alone anything ott.

Geezer

I agree in essence with Nidos comments about cotton wool etc. for kids, but this is a clear case of bad parenting. The legal limit for taking a petrol engined quad bike on public roads is 16, and for a reason.

The parents have clearly broken the law, and to expect a 7 yr old to be responsible, even in familiar surroundings is expecting a bit too much.

Still, as they have a RR, could afford to give their kids a quad bike each for Xmas, I doubt anything will come of it.

Are they related to the McCanns?.........

Geezer

The Snug Rhino

this was half mile from their home...NOT on their drive by any means.

anyone saying "you shouldn't wrap your kids in cotton wool" as an opposite to letting them ride a petrol quad bike, illegally on the public road in the dark is way off track.

you might as well say peter sutcliffe wasn't so bad because if your too nice to women they take you for granted and expect you to go shopping with them.

Leslie

I read that it is a country road but is used as a rat run by drivers who tend to drive fast along it.

Les