Mother defends breastfeeding baby while driving (followup on idiot)

WKYC-TV/DT Cleveland ^ | 6.17.03 | Vic Gideon

[mhking]

Mother defends breastfeeding baby while driving

Reported by Vic Gideon
POSTED: Monday, June 16, 2003 5:06:15 PM
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 12:20:52 PM

PORTAGE COUNTY -- A mother traveling from Detroit to Pittsburgh got into trouble in Portage County while trying to drive and breastfeed her baby at the same time.

Twenty-nine-year-old Catherine Donkers had fed the baby before she left Detroit but said her seven-month-old daughter was hungry again.

"I knew I was doing nothing wrong when I was breastfeeding her," Donkers said.

Donkers doesn't consider her actions excessively dangerous.

"I think there are lots of things we do when we put ourselves at risk, just by the very fact that I'm in a car and there's lots of car accidents every single day," she said. "I think it would be reasonable to say even that's a danger."

A truck driver apparently saw it as a danger and called the highway patrol. But Donkers wouldn't pull over for police until she got to a tollbooth.

"I've directed her to, that when she doesn't feel safe, she goes to a public place," said her husband, Brad Barnhill.

At the tollbooth, Donkers didn't give the trooper a driver's license. She instead pulled out an affidavit as identification and got cited for not having a license.

The couple also claims she did nothing wrong, saying Michigan law has an exemption to its child restraint law for nursing mothers.

They claim that since the turnpike is an interstate, drivers can follow the laws of their home state. But the highway patrol says that as long as the stop occurred in Ohio, they have to abide by Ohio laws.

The couple has done extensive research on the law and believes in a strict adherence to them. Donkers is facing child endangering and child seat violations among other charges. Her and her husband say they plan to fight all charges and will file a counter suit.

[Poohbah]

I understand your point but think that there is a world of difference between risk and malice.

Holding others hostage to your stupidity is malicious.

[mylife]

Holding others hostage?

How did she do that?

[Xenalyte]

Come check this out when you get a chance - this is CHOICE.

[Xenalyte]

Jsut remember: shiny side out!

[Poohbah]

She held the kid hostage to her reflexes and alertness, for starters.

[mylife]

She held the kid hostage to her reflexes and alertness, for starters.

Man thats stretching

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Don't forget other motorists, who were hostage to her not dropping the baby, or getting the baby's head caught under the wheel.

[Kozak]

Gee maybe you would like to strap your kid on the roof rack, maybe use him as a hood ornament? Most sane people recognize that an infant in a car wreck becomes a small unguided missle. Their chance of survival is far greater in a child seat then flying around the vehicle or launched out the window. But I guess simple common sense is lost on you.

[Poohbah]

I've learned something from this thread. I've learned who NOT to trust behind the wheel of a car.

My late father served on an admiralty court that defined "reasonably prudent man" for all 7th Fleet admiralty cases.

That definition was "someone who checks for paper before sitting on the commode."

[Kozak]

No, they were uninformed

And frequently buried together. Look at the fatality statistics from the pre seatbelt era.

[Kozak]

And whats the difference between being smashed between mama and the Wheel or mama and the ground?

Whats the difference between being tapped with a hand and smacked with a sledge hammer? In the collision you are looking at deceleration in the 100G range.

[bvw]

That suggests your father never suffered from the trots. Sometimes there is no time before, and the effort of the clean up after must be born. In other words, while checking for toilet paper before is prudent, sometimes it is not necessary -- other reasonable concerns dominate.

And in most cases one likes to apply the principle of "no harm, no foul". To do otherwise encourages an overabundance of litigation and pettiness.

[FITZ]

impaling said stripper with the steering wheel, and leaving the driver with the mentality of an 11 year-old.

Sounds like that's the mentality he started with.

[mylife]

And whats the difference between being smashed between mama and the Wheel or mama and the ground? Whats the difference between being tapped with a hand and smacked with a sledge hammer? In the collision you are looking at deceleration in the 100G range.

My point is that the Baby "Could" be harmed either way.

[mhking]

First link is a Yahoo! Group (PersonalOdyssey), detailing his windmill tilting....

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PersonalOdyssey

[mhking]

Do you think this will be enough for everybody???

Might need some more...

[Chancellor Palpatine]

A classic.

[Poohbah]

In one circumstance, the likelihood of harm, and the likely severity of such harm, is MUCH higher than the other.

There comes a point when one's stupidity reaches the point of malice.

[mhking]

right-wing anarchist ideology

Ah. I understand. A separatist loon. 'Nuff said.

[mhking]

The Incredible Hulk couldn't hold the kid securely, using his arms alone, in that kind of situation.

And that deceleration trauma is a b&tch.