I enjoy watching a local show every morning, 'Kansas City Live'. They talk about local events, and it's sort of fun. Today they went all drama and included a story on how minivan doors are DDAANNGGERROUUSSSS!! Run for you lives!!!!Do you remember, if yer old like me, when electric windows came out? And how many times did you stick your fingers in the very top and test how quickly you could get your fingers out before jamming them in there painfully? And you know you weren't always fast enough.. and that actually hurt! And 4 years ago, a strong wind caught the drivers door to my minivan and WHACK.. blood, pain.. lots of crying. Because of the angle of the door, instead of just up/down it actually reached out at the top.. and it broke my nose. I thought it took out my eye to be honest, I was freaking out! I ran back into the little convenience store bleeding all over their counter.. as the poor kid dialed 911 because some crazy woman was bleeding everywhere. They finally calmed me, and peeked... my eye was still in its socket :) So I calmed, and realized I ONLY broke my nose.. and that it was blood which came out of my nose. And when you were a kid, did your parents EVER use a seat belt? Hell no. There were 4 of us climbing all over the car. Hanging toys out the window. I actually used to sleep on that shelf in the back window. OK, but not that I'm knocking seat belts. Monkey is always buckled in!
My point. Everyone is too excited to sue. And the photo in this post just proves my point that instead of thinking, "Hey, look at my son, I better haul ass and help him because that crying-in-horrible-pain face is killing me!!"... she is thinking, "Oh!! Lawsuit!! Let me dig for my cell phone so I can turn on the camera and get a shot of this..." WHO DOES THIS?? You can read the rest of the story HERE. But, the point is that she wanted to prove to Honda that the safety features on their sliding door do not work.. and indeed her little boy jammed all 4 fingers in the door and could not get them out. Never mind that an AFTER photo would have clearly reflected the damage to his wandering little fingers.. they were all red and swollen. Nhoooo, we need a live shot of pain and horror.
When did we become so happy to sue? Yes, kids stick their fingers in doors. I did it as a kid, I remember the pain. Did my parents threaten to sue the car manufacturer because their child was not fast enough to get her fingers out of the hinges? Or because they weren't paying attention to make sure her little fingers weren't in there? No. Because life happens. If the doors shut automatically at 100mph.. removing all limbs in the way.. then SURE I would sue them. But have you seen how slowly those doors move? I'm just tired of these people. Take responsibility for your children. Accept the facts that we're going to get hurt. And unless it's a major car flaw, like the accelerator pedal sticks and you go over a cliff... or your brakes don't work.. and you go over a cliff.. then just move on. Because if you keep it up soon they will be building cars with no doors.. you'll have to climb in through the window!!
In thinking on the history of Monkey, we have always had a mini-van. I don't have one with the feature where it closes itself, we have to close it. We have never.. so far.. caught his fingers in it that I remember. We always make a point to make sure he's not dangling fingers in the wrong areas. But I almost think that since that door is so slow in closing, it gives a kid more time to do that stupid test I mentioned before... "I can beat the door.. I'll just leave my fingers here". And they LOSE. Even the lady in the story said it has happened before. It's no accident, the door moves TOO SLOW for it to be a surprise to that kid that his fingers are going to be stuck? No?? C'mon now!
Yes, it's horrible. Yes, I feel bad for the little boy. If it were Monkey, I'd probably cry with him. But would I blame Honda? No. Later we would discuss why you don't stick your fingers in the hinges of the door. Just as I tell him not to touch the hot stove, I don't threaten to sue GE. You don't play with matches, we don't sue the match people. You don't run into traffic, we don't sue the city for the lack of fences. You don't live on a diet of Big Mac's, we don't sue McDonalds. And so on...
