Allowing kid to ride bike to school = Child negligence!?

[RedheadDane]

A mother in Tennessee was arrested for allowing her fifth-grade child to ride one mile to school:

http://bikewalktn.blogspot.com/2011/08/arrested-for-riding-bike-to-school.html

 

[krebs303]

so stupid. the lunatics are running the asylum

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

That is some scary ****. Especially how the police are changing the story.

 

[Le breton]

A mother in Tennessee was arrested for allowing her fifth-grade child to ride one mile to school:

http://bikewalktn.blogspot.com/2011/08/arrested-for-riding-bike-to-school.html

I am not surprised. The policeman should be arrested, if the girl was at risk was not it because he was not doing his job correctly?
Besides, if it really was unsafe, should he not have escorted the girl to school?

When I lived in the states I often took my daughter places on the bike, always chose the low speed roads, 25-35 mph speed limit ( 40-56 km/h). Once I was on a dead end road I had reached from another dead end road by walking a short distance.

For whatever reason there were lots of cars on that section that day and policemen. One of them took me aside, didn't dare to tell me to go back where I came from with my daughter, but tried to impress on me how dangerous traffic could be.

Dumb @@s, as if cyclists didn't know. Instead of wasting his time on me, it seemed to me he should have been preaching the car drivers, not the lone cyclist.

One day I had to work late on the rather safe NASA grounds where I had my office. At 6 pm, when most people had gone home, I allowed my daughter ( almost 6 years old) to go ride her bike outside (she knew very well about safety rules, keeping to the right, etc). Less than 15 min later she was ushered into my office my one of the safety officers.
Oh well, at that age I was riding my bike to school, 2.5 km away, whenever it was working correctly.

 

[usedtobefast]

i grew up in Dallas and used to ride my bike to school all the time,a lot of us did. and it was hilly in my neighborhood.

 

[Martin318is]

It is becoming pretty ridiculous these days.

I used to ride all over town (living IN the city) by myself before I was 10. Rode to school from about 7 onwards. Was a rockclimbing instructor when I was 14 and went ice climbing for the first time at 15.

Apparently the gist of it now (worldwide) is, "Don't do anything remotely risky! Just stay home on the sofa and get fat."

 

[ksmith]

It is becoming pretty ridiculous these days.

I used to ride all over town (living IN the city) by myself before I was 10. Rode to school from about 7 onwards. Was a rockclimbing instructor when I was 14 and went ice climbing for the first time at 15.

Apparently the gist of it now (worldwide) is, "Don't do anything remotely risky! Just stay home on the sofa and get fat."

Then become a policeman.

 

[khardung la]

The world is crazier than ever. They should fine the parents that allow and sometimes even encourage their children to get morbid fat. Also the drivers not respecting speed rules and common sense when there is a child cycling, or any other biker. Sad.

 

[TheRossSeaParty]

On a similar note...
I recently got pulled over by a police officer who felt I was not riding safely. I was riding on a road built out of concrete slabs and about 1 foot to the left of the white line, was were the slabs met up and there is usually a large crack between the slabs. When cars are parked on the side of the road this crack is right where you would normally be riding. This is in addition to the normal wear and tear and the fact that there are more potholes where the concrete slabs meet. So I was riding to the left of the crack, which put me in the traffic lane. The officer felt I was dangerous and impeding traffic. While I don't want to get into all the details of the incident, the main thing was this: THE Officer in his car, felt he had a better understanding of the road condition and its safety merits that I, the cyclist did. He even told me that He looked for potholes and didn't see any. (Must have missed the 3 foot wide and 8 inch deep one I had to bunny hop about 1km before I was pulled over. When the Police start to find crimes where they 'feel' they are occurring, not where they really are occurring, then we are on a slippery slope. I was lucky I only got a stern lecture and didn't have to face any punishment. It is frightening to see the law losing all meaning, and the police and prosecutors just making it up as they go along.