A Child Has Died - Part I - Should We Prosecute?

Today we're going to look briefly at non-gun deaths of area children. A large number of these deaths occur in ATV and UTV accidents. Did we say accidents? 

When you place a child on an ATV designed for one adult passenger and one adult only, you are significantly increasing the odds of a rollover. How is it an accident if you've been told by the manufacturer not to do it, but do it anyway?

Adults may do what they wish, but children usually do what they're told. They are our responsibility and should be treated as priceless objects, not a sack of potatoes.

Some years ago, a man in a neighboring county held an illegal neighborhood fireworks show. His son died. Oh, the man had done everything he thought that he needed to do to protect the two children present, but Murphy was also in attendance.

The tragic event took place on the same street where the town's mayor lived. The mayor said the man wouldn't be prosecuted since he'd lost his son. Yet it wasn't long until the man's marriage fell apart. Is that common? We've read several articles and seen statistics as low as 16% and as high as 80%. It shouldn't be anything anyone would want first hand experience with.

On a brighter note, the family of a girl killed a few years ago in Florence had better luck coping. We'd just read of the child's death when we were contacted by a local attorney. He'd spoken with the district attorney's office and discovered there would be no charges brought against the mother whose negligence was responsible for the death.

The attorney wanted us to do a blog on the subject and encourage the district attorney to change his mind. We demurred. Why?

Our friend felt that if either of us had been babysitting the young girl, we would have been charged with Involuntary Manslaughter, but we felt a kinship with the child's mother. That's a prime example of why those commenting on a recent death in Lawrence County are totally lacking in objectivity. They're friends of the man involved. While we feel sympathy for the father, we don't feel the kinship that we felt with the Florence mother. 

Tomorrow we'll look at child gun deaths and some of the comments they're produced.