We Canadians shake our heads in disbelief, too

J

JBR

Well-known Member
Location
Southern Canada mtn. valley, tad west of Rockies
We see in the news that, in America, parents have lately been held legally responsible for not precluding kids access to pistols or even assault rifles. Occasionally, a parent has even provided the weapon and ammunition. Their distraught, foolhardy kids sometimes then go somewhere and kill and injure a group of people

Seems like irresponsibility? It does to me. Are there reasonable bounds to permissiveness?

Today’s news. I learned about a case in my province involving a teenager in court with a conviction and the sentence announced today. A 16-year-old learner-license driver was arrested last July for driving with passengers (not licensed to do so) at excessive speed, then attempting to evade the pursuant highway patrol, exiting the freeway and ignoring a stop stop sign — at speeds up to 180km/hr (112 mph). The driver was in his step mother’s car. He’s been presented with a $1800 fine and a 12-month driving ban.

From what I’ve gathered, step-mum will not bear any of the legal brunt, but she’s reportedly reaped the costs related to the kid slamming her BMW into a parked heavy-duty truck at the abrupt end of the joyride. I don’t know if that s simply a steep increase in her auto insurance rate.

The police are, of course, recommending that parents have serious “talks” counseling their kids about responsibility.

I realize it was a quirky mental leap on my part to immediately think back to something that happened maybe 20 yeas ago, an incident that still strikes me as even more devastating to a parent. An Ontario couple stupidly endangered their daughter. The dad was a noted professional drag-strip racing figure, and the daughter shared her desire to one day be a racing driver. Somewhere along the way, the parents allowed her, at 17, to drive a jet-engine dragster. On a drag strip, in a solo (non-competitive) test run, she drove it to a speed of around 300 mph, and after she’d released the drag-chute to slow toward a cruising speed, a wind caught the vehicle and tossed it against a retaining wall. And that ended her life.

Well, at least the girl didn’t kill anyone else.:rolleyes::cautious:
 
I don't consider the drag racing incident bad parenting myself. Since the father was a professional drag racer I would guess he had enough knowledge to determine if it was safe enough for his daughter to attempt it. She may have already shown herself to be a competent driver in other situations. That one sounds like just bad luck to me.

My wife's father was a race car driver and taught her to drive well on tracks riding with her to make sure she could handle the car correctly. An opportunity to run his car around a professional race track at full speed presented itself and she took it and was able to go around the track without incident hitting 160 mph back in the 1970's.
 
JBR said:
We see in the news that, in America, parents have lately been held legally responsible for not precluding kids access to pistols or even assault rifles. Occasionally, a parent has even provided the weapon and ammunition. Their distraught, foolhardy kids sometimes then go somewhere and kill and injure a group of people

Seems like irresponsibility? It does to me. Are there reasonable bounds to permissiveness?

Today’s news. I learned about a case in my province involving a teenager in court with a conviction and the sentence announced today. A 16-year-old learner-license driver was arrested last July for driving with passengers (not licensed to do so) at excessive speed, then attempting to evade the pursuant highway patrol, exiting the freeway and ignoring a stop stop sign — at speeds up to 180km/hr (112 mph). The driver was in his step mother’s car. He’s been presented with a $1800 fine and a 12-month driving ban.

From what I’ve gathered, step-mum will not bear any of the legal brunt, but she’s reportedly reaped the costs related to the kid slamming her BMW into a parked heavy-duty truck at the abrupt end of the joyride. I don’t know if that s simply a steep increase in her auto insurance rate.

The police are, of course, recommending that parents have serious “talks” counseling their kids about responsibility.

I realize it was a quirky mental leap on my part to immediately think back to something that happened maybe 20 yeas ago, an incident that still strikes me as even more devastating to a parent. An Ontario couple stupidly endangered their daughter. The dad was a noted professional drag-strip racing figure, and the daughter shared her desire to one day be a racing driver. Somewhere along the way, the parents allowed her, at 17, to drive a jet-engine dragster. On a drag strip, in a solo (non-competitive) test run, she drove it to a speed of around 300 mph, and after she’d released the drag-chute to slow toward a cruising speed, a wind caught the vehicle and tossed it against a retaining wall. And that ended her life.

Well, at least the girl didn’t kill anyone else.:rolleyes::cautious:
Click to expand...
As long as such teens only kill themselves and don't harm other people, I don't have any problems with such incidents.

The same here. I often read of fatal accidents of 18 or 19 year old teenagers with cars that have about 500 PS.
Why do parents give or even buy such cars for their kids who just had learned to drive? I got a old VW Beetle.
 
Maybe it's adhd. I had a carriage bike. My kids would ask if they could bike on it. They were around 8 or 10. Sure. You're in a street in a quiet neighborhood, in front of a friend's house and they bike 10 meter very cautious. Yippee! This is fun! The friend from my son, his mom was there too outside, just watching and she should have known. Can I try it too? Sure! He rides off like an imbecile and hits a parked car from a neighbour.

Once I took em out. We have kids firework around New Year. Not dangerous, tiny stuff for kids, but you have to watch out and supervise of course. That was always a lot of fun. We'd do it in a special fire place in the park where people barbecued or made a fire. So I wanted to do that when that boy with adhd came over to play. We were just walking and zjoot the bag was on fire. Whooa. I took it off him. Hmm. Maybe not such a great idea after all.
 
JBR said:
in America, parents have lately been held legally responsible for not precluding kids access to pistols or even assault rifles
Click to expand...
Yes, and for auto accidents:

"A parent or guardian may be liable when their teen driver causes a car accident, depending on state law and the circumstances behind the crash."

NOLO
 
I saw the 1 minute video these kids made. Can’t find it now. The passengers were telling him to not kill them; they were getting scared.

Often when I read of a fatal accident for a carload of young folks, I wonder if they wanted the driver to slow down.
 
asp3 said:
I don't consider the drag racing incident bad parenting myself. Since the father was a professional drag racer I would guess he had enough knowledge to determine if it was safe enough for his daughter to attempt it. She may have already shown herself to be a competent driver in other situations. That one sounds like just bad luck to me.
Click to expand...
Oh yes, bad luck to be sure. You share an interesting opinion.

I feel a parent has a responsibility to try to safeguard their kids at least until the age of legal majority. I don't feel kids should be raised by their smart phones .Among people I know whom I'd consider to be responsible parents, their concerns for their kids' growing degree of sound judgment often extends beyond that legally defined age.

I have one daughter, we've had a great relationship. And when she wants, I continue to discuss things with her regarding her own welfare and anything she wants to talk about concerning relations with other people. But that's just my way. She was completely self responsible by time she was 20 and, happily, displayed little need to lean on dad at all.
 
We had a especially sad event here several years ago.

A woman had bought her young son a high-power "muscle car". He was driving it at a highly-dangerous speed down a road and hit another car, killing both of that car's passengers.

The sad twist? His mother and aunt were in the car he hit.

The Spousal Equivalent made the mistake of buying both of his sons muscle car's when they turned 16. Yep, both wrecked them...luckily nobody got hurt.

Big mistake to give high-powered cars to new drivers. Those cars are made to go fast and that's EXACTLY what they'll do, especially boys.
 
I saw how my sons rode their 4 wheelers on our property, you better believe we had many discussions
on safety before they were old enough for a license. They had rifles too ---- after they completed the
Gun Safety class and were taken out with Dad, so it's not all parents. We had to hunt for food for awhile,
so it was a necessity for them to learn. If we lived in the city, there would not have been firearms.

One son did get his car in a ditch one winter night at a place he was not supposed to be at.
Guess who paid his fee for getting his car out - it sure wasn't me or Dad. Best lesson - make them pay
for their own stupid mistakes.
 
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