A Less Than Gentle Reminder: Keep Your Children In the Back Seat.

Submitted by Taran Rampersad on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 10:39

While everyone's condolences pour out to the Ramkhalawan family for their loss, what seems to have been glossed over is that the 6 year old was in the front seat. The adult friend, who was in the back seat, survived.

No one likes to be the person who points out that the child should have been in the back seat when there is an injury or fatality, but... it seems apparent that someone needs to. It wasn't too long ago, on the Independence Day of Trinidad and Tobago, that Newsday was being criticized for placing a dead infant on their front page. There's no reason for a child to be in the front seat of a vehicle  with the exception of a single cab pickup.

So, while everyone is extending their condolences to the family of Christopher Ramkhalawan, resolve to put the children in the back seat of the vehicle when driving. While it may not have avoided a fatality here (it's under investigation), it should be a hint and a half to all the parents I see out there with their children in the front seat of their vehicles.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Blog: 
Trinidad and Tobago
automobile
accident
safety

Comments

Submitted by A Less Than Gen... (not verified) on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 11:34.

[...] View original post here: A Less Than Gentle Reminder: Keep Your Children In the Back Seat. [...]

Submitted by Edmund Gall on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 12:14.

The Trinidad Express story says the child was in the back seat, as did the Newsday.  The Trinidad Guardian says the child was in the front seat.  Click on the embedded links above to get the stories from the respective websites.

Apart from not agreeing on the location of the child, there were several other glaring inconsistencies:

  • The Guardian and Newsday have the 3rd passenger's name as Rishi Capildeo, while the Express says it's Rikki Mukesh
  • The Guardian has the father's name as Anthony Ramkhalawan and son's name as Christopher Ramkhalawan; the Express had their names as Anthony and Khris Ramkhelawan, and the Newsday had them as Anthony and Chris Ramkahawalan

At least they agreed the child was six years old, the car exploded and the accident happened on Trantrill Road.  Why do reporters get different basic details for the same story, time after time?  Don't they speak to the same police spokesman?  They never seem to agree on the names of the persons involved or their ages.

Taran, though ideally we shouldn't need to, I'd recommend reading the stories on an issue from at least two Trinbago papers before commenting on the published 'facts' of an issue.

Submitted by Ian Ramjohn on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 13:38.

Nothing new there - not one of the papers got my brother's name right (he was Karl, not Carl...the guy in the Monty Python sketch would have had no problem saying his name!), and they all differed in little details.  There's a reason for that - there isn't a central clearinghouse for information in situations like this.  So they ask people who they feel should know, and they print what they get.

Submitted by Taran Rampersad on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 18:19.

But since the idea isn't to poke the bereaved but instead heighten awareness... Honestly, I had things to do today and only looked at the Guardian story. Again, good catch.

And yes, wouldn't it be nice if the press were consistent? 

And still, I'll stick to the point that children should be in the back seat.

Submitted by Why don&#03... (not verified) on Thu, 11/26/2009 - 13:15.

[...] seat, and the three daily papers disagreed on the names of the persons involved.  It prompted this safety call by Taran Rampersad.  I suspect these errors arise when the different reporters speak with different police [...]