Posted on 07/24/2006 6:12:21 AM PDT by Samwise
INDIANAPOLIS -- A 3-year-old boy was fatally injured when a floor-mounted mirror fell on him at an Indianapolis Wal-Mart.
Police said Christopher Antonio was apparently playing near the 5-foot-tall mirror in the children's section of the store Saturday evening when it fell at the store in the 3200 block of 86th Street.
The boy was with his 5-year-old sister and his mother. The mother told police she was about 5 feet away from her son when she heard a loud crash.
Police said it took two people to pull the mirror off the boy.
You can prevent them from falling if you don't have a knee-jerk reaction like you suggested.
The point is that although you think it is perfectly fine and safe to let a child ride in the basket, I don't. I don't because children fall out of them all the time.
If the child is big enough to fall out of the basket, you wouldn't have them in it anyway. At that size or age they're big enough to hold your hand or be carried.
I still wouldn't call you negligent if your child got hurt while riding in the basket.
If my child got hurt while riding in the basket, it would be due to lack of supervision... which wouldn't happen.
3 yr olds should NEVER be left to their own devices in a store.
And you proved my point.
That would mean the child was out of her mother's reach by 27 inches.
less than one step away and not unusual at all.
Or possibly 'loosened' by other unsupervised children running wild & playing in the stores nowadays ??
I can't imagine how a 3 year old could have gotten it off the hinge?!
I was wondering just where the 5 yr. old sister was when all this was happening ??
Seems I see more & more very young kids left "in charge" of younger sibs, with no parents in site.
I am not going after you, just your attitude that anyone who doesn't parent like you is wrong and your very obvious lie that the child was climbing on the mirror.
"I'm gonna have to check tri fold mirrors next time I'm in a store..."
Where did you hear it was a tri fold? That would make it three mirrors.
A standard width for each panel would be about 18-24" W. It's been stated that the height was 5 feet. If that was an unsecured tri fold....that would mean up to 30 sq. feet of wood backed mirror fell on that 3 year old.
I've taken many, and am already signed up for another that starts in October.
Post #615 has new info, which says it was a six foot tri-fold mirror.
I said that he should have been in a cart. The attacks started immediately. That changes nothing. She was not closely supervising him in an uncontrolled environment.
while at the same time praised your own mother for being far worse when it came to taking her eyes of her children.
50 years ago in a different time and place with other freepers telling similar stories. Tell me, why is your angst reserved for me? Because I refused to be bullied?
Your inconsistency is very telling.
I'd match my consistent statements to your memory of them.
Lest you've forgotten, I said that we stayed where we were told to stay. This child was allowed to do something unsafe such as try to climb a mirror. It was a comparison of discipline versus none.
He put his foot up on the rubber bumper ie: he "stepped on it". That's trying to climb the mirror. It doesn't go all the way to the floor. I doesn't go near your ankles. More like about 6 inches off the floor.
I'm totaly with you.
I've met yours and you've met mine........even good kids can get out of hand at times and do something mom or dad can't catch in time.
Give me a break. I lost my 2 year old in the mall, one time. Found him 20 minutes later - after I'd wandered much farther away trying to find him and just before I called the police- in the huge box of hangers not 2 feet from where I'd been. He thought he was so funny for hiding so well. And he was building something out of the hangers.
Actually........good for you. That really is great.
That's how I shop with my three children, ages 1,2 and 4. When I stop in some sections they let go and pick up toys and things, but then it is right back to the cart. Sometimes my middle child will ride in the big part of the cart until it gets too full.
Perhaps the mom got distracted, I guess the boy was somehow climbing on the mirror, it came unhinged, any way you slice it, it is a tragedy. From the article, it could have all taken place in 5 seconds or less. No parent should ever have to bury a child, even if the child was doing something they shouldn't have. Just terrible, my heart goes out to this family and this little boy.
In the link in I believe 615 there's video - it shows the mirror laying on the floor. Now that I'm thinking about the picture ... it wouldn't have been the hinges.. I just can't picture a trifold in my mind. The places that I worked the center mirror of a tri fold was mounted securely to a wall ... I can't even imagine a tri fold that stands on the floor.
Also - in the new article it says it was SIX feet tall... even MORE weight... shudder...
I just replied ...
When I looked back at the video ... it was a tri fold laying on the floor - if it was the actual mirror then it wouldn't have been hinges... Still no REAL answers on how it could have fallen. Even the police are having to "work backwards" figuring it out..
No they shouldn't. It's a grief that never goes away.
I also stated to you that neither my mother or grandmother allowed her children to sit unattended while in the dressing room.....your mother did.
I also mentioned 60 and 40 years ago.
Tell me, why is your angst reserved for me? Because I refused to be bullied?
I have no angst against you, I'm just pointing out your own inconsistencies.
Even the most well behaved child is going to have his or her moments where every expectation of the parent is going to be totally wiped out, even at 3 years old.
Why you refuse to give this mother any benefit of any doubt is positively beyond me.........even after the new information has been provided, I'm still willing to give her that.
Thanks for the ping, I'm late to the thread and having read most of the replies I find that it's not really a Wal-Mart thread at all, even though Wal-Mart is in the title.
It's sad that the little boy is dead and I feel nothing but compassion for the parents.
I have my hands full, I have 3 grand children visiting, 2 girls age 11 each and one hand full 7 year old boy. I have 4 adult children, 12 grand children and one great grand child. Anybody who says they can keep their eye on kids 100% of the time is not telling the truth, in my opinion.
I don't understand the need to place blame, either on the store or the parent, it's a tragedy and I am sure the courts will assign blame in due time.
My girls are watching pro wrestling. I will never understand kids even after having been around so many of them and having been one myself, oh so many years ago.
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