Posted on 05/22/2012 3:19:07 PM PDT by KansasGirl
A New Jersey dad got the scare of his life when his 5-year-old son almost ran off a steep embankment, and though the man saved the boy from falling, he couldn't stop his Jeep from going over the precipice and into a river below.
Frank Roder, a construction worker from the town of Winfield Park, had taken his son, Aidan, down to the Rahway River to feed ducks Thursday. But when he stopped briefly before settling on a parking space, the impatient boy jumped out and took off -- straight toward a ledge 35 feet above the river, Roder recalled.
"He hopped out, and I thought that was OK, I was just going to park," Roder, 38, said, but "he just took off, made a beeline for the edge."
The panic-stricken father jumped out of the cab of his 2006 Jeep Commander and raced after the errant boy, catching him just feet from the edge.
That's when Aidan, eyes as big as saucers, looked behind Roder and said, "Um, Daddy ..."
Roder turned in time to see the Jeep nosedive down the embankment and land in the muddy water.
Snip
He was counting his blessings when a young cop approached him and handed him two tickets. One was for failure to produce the insurance card, which was somewhere in the waterlogged cab. The other was for failing to use his emergency brake.
"I couldn't believe it," Roder said. "He said, 'If you would have taken the five seconds to apply the brake, this never would have happened!'
"I say, 'Really? And if I did and my boy stepped over the edge and fell instead of the Jeep, then were would I be?' He says, 'Jail, for child endangerment.'"
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I’d say the two events were events were unrelated. lol
Your tax dollars at work...
so many power freak cops
5 yr old is mum...(pssst kid,if your dad mentions getting in a balloon, call the cops)
It takes him 5 seconds to apply the brake? Must be some crank or something.
So he and his boy are planning to feed the ducks from a 35-foot embankment. Do most people feed ducks from over the side of a cliff? Wouldn’t you need a pretty sturdy arm to throw bread crumbs or something like that to reach the ducks?
I’m probably missing something in the news account but it seems to me like they picked an odd place to interact with waterfowl.
Are you saying the father set this up? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?
Are you saying the father set this up? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?
Shoulda just stayed in the jeep. It would have been much easier to feed the ducks that way.
I can’t get out of my truck without applying the parking break. It just happens. It’s involuntary.
He was pretty stupid. Well deserved ticket. Probably should have been arrested. How much fuel and other stuff will go into the stream?
“You killed the car.”
Have you ever been driving and saw your kid running off a cliff? If the answer is no, then you have no idea how you would react.
why wasn’t the 5 yr old kid in a car seat?
My children and now grandchildren are trained from infancy to remain seated and belted in until instructed otherwise.
I guess some folks are too lazy to teach basic safety to their children. Which is sometimes dealt with through natural selection, come to think of it.
Great, now you want him to get three tickets!
he could’ve.
A five year old is perfectly capable of unfastening a seat belt on a booster seat.
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