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.

[Howlin]

No, you belong at DU; the people at DU believe that nothing they could ever possibly do has any rammifactions for anybody except themselves.

And if, by chance, they do, they always have some way of rationalizing their own part it in away.

[justshe]

BINGO!!! Summer Solstice.....I hadn't thought of that.

I wonder if people think they get to just pick and choose WHICH laws (car registration, driver's license, child endangerment) they get to obey.....and which ones they can just say *PIFFLE* to.....because they view them as unconstitutional.

[Kozak]

Would I do that while driving? Well, besides the fact that it would be a bit anatomically difficult for me, no, most likely not. But that alone does not make it inherently dangerous for someone else.

It was inherently DANGEROUS for her baby. THATS the whole point. Even if she drove like Mario Andretti, she endangered her child needlessly. If someone else had made a mistake, if she had blown a tire, ete etc etc. There is NO REASONABLE (STRESS ON REASONABLE) REASON FOR HER TO ENDANGER HER CHILD TO BREASTFEED WHILE DRIVING.

Whats insane is the fact that I'm sure given some of the posts that a good attorney could find suffcient loopholes and / or enough idiots to place on the jury who would be willing to let her walk that she probably will suffer no consequences.

[John123]

It was the result of the knottsberry murder... the chp officer raped and then killed the heir to the knottsberry farm fortune, on a deserted underpass, on highway fifteen, near poway california.

Did a google search. Nothing. Was she an heiress of something else?

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the ping, King! Our baseball announcers replay in their sign off tape their closing for one of the wilder games at Coors Field: "If ya didn't see it, if ya didn't hear it, ya'd never believe it!"

[petitfour]

OK. Poochie will no longer ride with us unless we are driving less than 35 mph. I don't know how far he could projectile, however. He's so big, he takes up the whole space. Nowhere for him to go.

[mylife]

No, you belong at DU; the people at DU believe that nothing they could ever possibly do has any rammifactions for anybody except themselves. And if, by chance, they do, they always have some way of rationalizing their own part it in away.

The difference is, that I take resposibility for my actions and I expect the same of others... I dont expect the gov to protect me from life.

[Kozak]

Should we pass a law on stupidity?

There's one on the books. Under Law of Natural Selection
It's not uniformly enforced but tends to correct over time. Capital Crime. See Darwin awards.

[Kozak]

The baby is alive and healthy. There was no harm. So if she played Russian Roulette with the baby and the gun didn't go off no problem right?

[Howlin]

http://www.thingsfor-pets.co.uk/acatalog/Back_to_Main_Page_Dog_Car_Harness_87.html

[spunkets]

" Whats insane is the fact that I'm sure given some of the posts that a good attorney could find suffcient loopholes and / or enough idiots to place on the jury who would be willing to let her walk that she probably will suffer no consequences."

Fret not! Sounds like y'all got enough here to gather up a committee of the righteously concerned and string 'er up from a lamp post.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

If you put a carseat in a truck the law, at least in North Carolina, says there has to be no air bag or the air bag has to have been disabled by the employer.

For the rest, see #392.

And now come the qualifiers to that strongly worded statement that was intended to convey authority on a particular subject. You wrote:

"...Carseats for infants are required BY LAW to be in the back seat of the car."

"So how did she remove a baby from a five point belt in a carseat REQUIRED BY LAW from the backseat into the front seat while she was flying down the interstate?"

Show me the law that requires a five-point harness for a child seat IN ALL 50 STATES!

Sorry, but something resembling a label with no reference to laws, statutes or ordinances won't do here.

You passed yourself off as an authority on the subject, so now it's time to put up or shut up.

[mylife]

You got that right

[petitfour]

You want me to order a dog safety belt from the UK???????????

[Mrs.Liberty]

Cara Knott is the name.

Her dad would go faithfully, almost daily to this little area set aside near where her body was found..he had planted a garden. A few years back, he had a heart attack in that spot and died.

[Howlin]

Show me the law that requires a five-point harness for a child seat IN ALL 50 STATES!

I never said that; I said that the law requires the car seat to be in the back. You misunderstood.

I showed you the National Highway Safety rules. If you don't like it, I'm so so sorry.

I never passed myself off as an authority on anything; I merely stated the laws and regulations.

[Howlin]

That's an example. You can find one around here.

[Rollee]

Before I ask you my question, let me tell you in advance that I am totally unfamiliar with your religious practices. This is why I have a question.

You stated in an earlier post that: I use a photo ID issued by my church and we also have identification that we made, essentially an Affidavit of Positive Identification, that is signed by us and two witnesses before a notary and sealed, then laminated.

You also stated that you and your wife object to identification because it "inventories the flesh". Isn't a photo id issued by your church an "inventory of the flesh"? Please answer, I am curious how one id is objectionable and the other isn't. Thank you in advance.

[bvw]

Imagination! You can be afraid of every dust mite too! Hey, I have a heard from *deep sources* THEY are after you! Best hide under the bed. THEY won't look for you there.

[Kozak]

Fret not! Sounds like y'all got enough here to gather up a committee of the righteously concerned and string 'er up from a lamp post.

Nah. But I think her and her husband should be offered afree tubal ligation and a vasectomy.