We were at the park last night. It was going to be a great night - some of the other moms and myself decided to have a potluck dinner. We were all sitting around eating, when two moving trucks drove by, big ones that you can rent and drive yourself. One of them was pulling a trailer with a truck on it. There was a kid (nine year old boy) riding in the truck bed. None of us noticed that as they drove by. We commented on getting new neighbors, and how they rented two trucks instead of making two trips. The next thing we know, all the teenagers at the park are running toward the street they turned on. We just thought it was another fight. (We've called the cops on these kids several times - typical teenagers.) Turns out that it was the kid in the back of the truck. They hit a bump in the street and he tipped out backwards. There were things on the street that should never see the light of day. He lived for a little while - unconscious, but breathing. They landed the life alert helicopter at the park, but after a few minutes, the ambulance with the boy in it drove slowly away, turning off its lights, and the chopper flew away unoccupied. The boy's mom and little sister were a day behind them in the car. One of the moms I was with was a nurse. She went to help out until the EMTs got there. When she got back she grabbed her kids and hugged them for quite a while. I didn't put my daughter down for the rest of the night. It made me realize that while I would never let her do what that boy was doing, just walking down the stairs at home is putting life at risk. I don't want to be overbearing and overprotective, but I do want her to be able to calculate the risks and make good decisions on her own.
And for those of you who think I was just another rubbernecker, we had driven to the park. The roads were blocked off and the parking lot was packed with police and rescue vehicles. We couldn't get out.

Labels: sad things