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 ...
After reading a lot of the comments I have to ask WTF is wrong with you people? Let’s at least take the dad’s story at face value till proven otherwise. I’m sure if it were your kid I would at least hope you’d rather have your car in the drink than your kid splattered at the bottom of a cliff. I’m glad so many people here have perfect little angels and perfect little lives and have life’s sudden events totally prepared for and would know what to do exactly the second something random comes up.
“He was pretty stupid. Well deserved ticket. Probably should have been arrested. How much fuel and other stuff will go into the stream?”
Couldn’t agree more.\s
The life of a child is surely not worth a good car and FOR SURE not worth the possibility some fuel and stuff might get into the water and pollute Mother Earth.\s
This country has in large part gone insane.
“To Protect and Serve”...
Yup. Uh huh...sure.
A 5-year-old may be properly trained one minute and may act extremely UNTRAINED the next. Have you been around children? LOL
Save your child, and not your vehicle? The Agent of the State is here to punish you, Serf!
Save your vehicle, and not your child? The Agent of the State will arrest you, Serf!
But again, that's what natural selection is all about.
BTW, I find the headline to be laughable. Dad saves boy? How about:
At face value the guy failed to control both his child and his car. His negligence nearly cost his son injury or death.
.
have life’s sudden events totally prepared for and would know what to do exactly the second something random comes up.
It wasn't random at all. It was totally predictable. Kids jumping out of cars into dangerous situations is a common danger that comes up every time a kid goes for a car ride. It is the parent's job to make sure that doesn't happen.
Typical of NJ...
That cop lacked basic human compassion. The man nearly lost his son.
But, when you let yourself become a tax collector instead of a peace officer, I suppose it’s understandable to view citizens as cash cows ready for milking.
Same here. Many of these comments are appalling.
I guarantee that every parent here has made mistakes in their parenting, and I bet each parent here would want more compassion shown to him/her if each saw his/her beloved child running towards the edge of a cliff, and he/she instinctively left the car to preserve the life of the child.
I’m thinking that the cop should have performed a sobriety test on the genius.
No, he saved his son’s life.
A man who beats his son so that he nearly dies nearly kills his son.
Why do you lack compassion, or even empathy, for this man? What do you think you have to prove?
One day when you make a mistake, could you do a press release so we all realize you are not a god?
Words have meaning. This man was responsible for his son. Because of his negligence he was forced to decide between his son or his car. He chose well, but that does not make him a hero.
An analogy would be a man out for a walk with his 5-year-old son. The man jaywalks across a busy boulevard with his son trailing several feet behind him. At the last second he realizes that a car is about to strike his son and snatches his son out of the way. In both cases the man could have chosen to fulfill his responsibility as a parent but failed to do so. In this case, he could have held his son’s hand and crossed at the light. In the actual case, he could have kept the kid in the car until it was properly parked. In neither case is he a hero. He did not “save” his son, rather he managed to avoid getting his his son killed though his negligence.
It’s really quite simple but emotion seems to trump reality for a lot of folks.
Oh, I make plenty of mistakes. Mrs. Chandler can attest to that. But I own up to mine and don't whine about getting a bum deal when the consequences arrive.
By the why, I don't allow passengers to exit my vehicle before it's in park. Do you? That's pretty fundamental.
You analogy fails. Jaywalking is illegal (in most places in the U.S. of which I am aware).
Parking a car is not.
He looks for a safe place to park the car, Junior is excited about the outing and pops out of the car eagerly, and Daddy quickly realizes that Junior has chosen to make a beeline for the cliff’s edge.
Kids do unpredictable things. No parent can 100% predict 100% of the time what dangerous activity their kid will decide “sounds like a good idea” at that moment.
He realized his kid was in danger. He saved his son. He rectified a bad situation.
That’s what men do. That’s what fathers do. If they make a mistake / bad judgment, they FIX it.
That’s what he did. He realize he miscalculated what his son WOULD do in that instance and protected his son from the consequences of a deadly application of the Law of Gravity.
The question remains: why don’t you have compassion or empathy on this man, an imperfect father, just like you?
Why are you determined to tear him down? Do you suppose that in doing so, you build yourself up?
Kids being impulsive is 100% predictable. He had just taught the boy how to unbuckle his belt. I guess he left out the part about not jumping out of the car without permission.
I don’t need to tear him down, the pic of his car speaks for itself, lol!
The analogy was about safety and his responsibility to watch his kid. He failed to do so and it was his own fault his car ended up in the drink. It wasn’t something that just happened to him. It was his own fault. He is the parent. He is spposed to be in control.
My kids knew who the boss was and we didn’t allow them to exit without permission. Same with our kid’s children. We know plenty of couples who have large families and none of their kids would dare jump out of the car without permission.
No, this guy causes the problem by failing to control the kid then whines like a baby about it. He should man up and accept the consequenses
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