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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
4-Year-Old Can Be Sued, Judge Rules in Bike Case
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Anonymous
| The woman was elderly and as a result of the accident, sustained a broken hip. She may have died of unrelated causes, but anyone who works with the elderly knows, a broken hip hastens the decline in health of an elderly person. |
Anonymous
This. |
Anonymous
| So what? The child could just have easily been injured. |
Anonymous
Is this like how a burglar sues a homeowner if he gets hurt while robbing the homeowner's house? |
Anonymous
| It isn't like the 4 year old will go to jail or get a criminal record. Truth is, the mothers were providing lousy supervision. They weren't riding tricycles, they were racing. If adding the child to the list makes suing the parents easier, so be it. |
Anonymous
You may very well be correct that had this woman not sustained injury, she could be alive today. This has NOTHING to do with the ridiculousness of holding a 4 year old legally responsible for anything. If anyone should be held responsible for the behavior of a 4 year old, it really should be the parent. At what age does a child become responsible for understanding the consequences of her own actions? I don't know. But it isn't 4 for heavens sake. My 5 year old believes in majic, and fairies, and Santa Claus. She actually thinks if you blow hard enough you can make the traffic light turn from red to green. |
Anonymous
It was an accident, and the children were riding the bikes legally -- although I understand that the question is, who was responsible for watching to make sure that no pedestrians were hit. Sue someone sure -- the parents not the 4 year old. |
Anonymous
Is it really unrelated? Eggshell skull rule. Causation. Negligence? |
Anonymous
Maybe she was run over by a bus. That's pretty unrelated. |
Anonymous
|
"At what age does a child become responsible for understanding the consequences of her own actions? I don't know. But it isn't 4 for heavens sake. "
My four year old understands that her actions have consequences and she has for at least two years. Does she understand all of the consequences? Of course not. But, that is what lawsuits are supposed to sort out. As for it being an accident, of course it was. That's what negligence is all about - accidents and who is responsible for the consequences. No one starts out their day thinking I'm going to drive carelessly, but yet everyday, some people do and they cause accidents and get sued for negligence. |
Anonymous
|
It just makes me so sad to think that anybody out there would actually try to sue a four year old. How the hell do you recover damages from a four year old? From her parents, I suppose, but then that's what the lawsuit of them is about. How does "the estate" sleep at night knowing that due to their actions, a four year old's name will forever be linked to killing someone?
I'd like to find the real names of "the estate" and publish them. See how they like that. |
Anonymous
| This is awful. Unless the parents are rich, the legal costs will really hurt the family, and the child will have to bear the guilt of that in addition to having harmed the elderly woman. Instead of doing the right thing and forgiving the child and her parent, the family bring the suit is just going to destroy the life of a young child. And it's VERY hard to supervise children on bikes so I don't really fault the parent either. We're such a litigious society. It's disgusting. Only parasitic lawyers benefit. |
Anonymous
"Forgive" the child and her parent while the elderly woman was seriously injured (a broken hip is NO joke) and that injury may well have lead to her ultimate death? Even if there was an accident here, why should the victim of the accident (or her relatives) be the one to bear the harm of the accident, while those who caused the accident face no consequences. Would you be so quick to preach forgiveness if this was your own mother or grandmother instead of an unknown woman? |
Anonymous
|
It is quite often that one sees little kids 3, 4, 5, 6 year old spreading terror in all playgrounds of DC, MD and VA while their mothers just stand by
chatting with other mothers. The kids usually ride their bikes in very unexperienced manner and it is more often then bikes decides which way it goes then a child. Those parents are / were very well aware of the lack of skills of their off-springs yet they care very little aobut this. I bet that those two mothers must be of that type. Every parent is pretty much aware of their own' kids ability yet they oftentimes choose to ignore the danger and exhibit the attitude of a sort "let the passer by beware" therefore I pity the kids that this happened to as I believe it was their mothers fault yet it seem that this will be the greater lesson to all parents who need this kind of lesson then just going after them. Parents do not care about others injuries unless they have something to fear - like this case will give them good reason to rethink the whole "this is just a kid, and if he will run into somebody this will be just an accident and simple sorry will do the trick". I am not a rocket scientist but if you put a 40lbs kid on a bike that goes 5 - 15 miles per hour and if he rides your bike into your toddler then you can only imagine the possible damage, potential for damage. Our parks are full of those little "fury on wheels" with no controll no skills and no responsibility. What is even more curious - the design of the parks in many cases support mix of bike traffic with other activities like swings, slides, and simple running areas for little ones and this is a big headache for many parents of the little ones who do not ride bikes. Our cities should have little bike mini traffic areas for kids, just like other countries do. Kids should have an opportunity to practice their bike rides, yet they should be safe from accidents that they could sustain from riding in pedestrians and the pedestrians should be equally protected. |
Anonymous
| The problem is that in this country everyone thinks the remedy for everything is through litigation. the fact is that litigation is a very poor way of resolving most issues. the net result is that the price of everything is forced up, many worthwhile activities are abandoned, and we end up with this plague of lawyers. |