The day I accidentally killed a little boy • Hacker News Board

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#261

Post by JeanMarcS » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

chris_7 wrote: post #87

JeanMarcS wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s my hope. Yesterday a 12 year old kid on a bike was hit by a car where I live. It was dark, and I don’t have the exact details. The kid was coming from behind a parked car, it was 7pm so night, so I guess it’s the same kind of story that happened (beside the fact that a lot of people here are really bad drivers). I’m so looking forward the time when human will stop driving by themselves. Of course there will be…

Hit by a driver .

Yes, that’s what I say. Let’s get rid of drivers and let the car drive itself. Of course when the technology will be mature enough.

We do it for planes for years so why not for cars.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#262

Post by whistlerbrk » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

Pigo wrote: post #7

I can barely bring myself to read stories like this now. I never really thought about it before my son was born, but there's always this dread you live with in the back of your mind. This little helpless person has your life in it's hands. The world and fate is trying to take them out, and if they succeed you'd never recover. You can learn to live with pain, but I don't believe you ever get over something like that.

Same. I never truly understood fear and dread until my daughter arrived. I went from being a rather fearless person to seeing the true danger in the world everywhere.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#263

Post by triangleman » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

BearGoesChirp wrote: post #155

All the people talking about being unable to handle/comprehend the death of their child, and especially the one line of conversations about the impact of losing one child when you have many more, made me think about something. For most of human history, losing some children was expected. Child mortality rates for most of our history have been abysmal. As species, what impact did that have on us? Child abuse has a lon…

Didn't earlier societies value the life of elders more than children, because they had a life of experience and wisdom that was lost?

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#264

Post by magic_beans » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:04 PM UTC

Myrmornis wrote: post #234

jamiegreen wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didnt say the movies should be banned from Netflix, but rather that they would like to have some filter in order to avoid such movies.

Sorry, I meant trigger warning.

You'll be a great parent some day.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#265

Post by balls187 » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:05 PM UTC

Pigo wrote: post #7

I can barely bring myself to read stories like this now. I never really thought about it before my son was born, but there's always this dread you live with in the back of your mind. This little helpless person has your life in it's hands. The world and fate is trying to take them out, and if they succeed you'd never recover. You can learn to live with pain, but I don't believe you ever get over something like that.

I force myself to read stories like this, as it helps keep in perspective that everyday I have with my son is a gift, and never take it for granted.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#266

Post by nickspacek » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:05 PM UTC

sulam wrote: post #230

Mithaldu wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty that could've been done to prevent this. Most basic and simple would be to institute a traffic law culture in which the driver does get blame by default for hurting a pedestrian so they have pedestrians on their mind every single minute they control their car.

What the hell? Did you read the story? This woman should be blamed for what was completely unpredictable? Do you realize she would be in prison for vehicular manslaughter? How about not having a 40 or 50 mph speed limit on a residential street?

And mandating fences and sidewalks to give more visibility? Building codes that ensure there is visibility in all driveways? There probably are a lot of policies you could put in place.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#267

Post by mikgan » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:06 PM UTC

That was a tough, but totally worthwhile read... deeo breaths, puts the phone down

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#268

Post by jiggunjer » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:06 PM UTC

BearGoesChirp wrote: post #228

baxtr wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mother lost one of her siblings (a small boy of 4) 65 years ago. She still talks about it and becomes very sad. I think life was just much much crueler and a lot lot worse than it is today.

65 years ago is after the change happened. Part of the problem is I'm talking so long ago that everyone who only knew that reality. Maybe we could look at some place overall isolated from the rest of the world where child mortality throughout the society is similar to centuries ago, but with globalization I'm not sure that is possible because even in places where it is extremely high now, the local wealthy would have…

Families were bigger, less emotional investment per capita. Human life, in as far as an economist can quantity it, was objectively worth less too. Nowadays we are highly educated value creators.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#269

Post by Reedx » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:07 PM UTC

christophilus wrote: post #244

somebodyfree wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This did not actually happen: http://reason.com/archives/2017/10/23/ye-olde-ikea-sex-traff...

I'm glad to hear that this story was fake! I never looked it up, just heard her retelling of it. Regardless, the story wasn't the point of my comment. The reaction I have as a dad vs pre-parenthood is the point. Where I live is the sex-trafficking capital of my state, which probably heightens my reactions, too. The problem is real and pervasive, fake news not withstanding.

Well, it's real like getting struck by lightning is real. The odds are extremely low.

Everyone could let their kids walk to school and chances are nothing bad will happen. Though it may lead to those kids being a bit healthier, more independent and more confident. And less likely to die in a car crash - which is far, far more probable than kidnapping.

Re: The day I accidentally killed a little boy

#270

Post by ZeroGravitas » Tue, Jan 09, 2018, 5:07 PM UTC

BearGoesChirp wrote: post #155

All the people talking about being unable to handle/comprehend the death of their child, and especially the one line of conversations about the impact of losing one child when you have many more, made me think about something. For most of human history, losing some children was expected. Child mortality rates for most of our history have been abysmal. As species, what impact did that have on us? Child abuse has a lon…

I was at a funeral recently, for an older person, but the same thought about losing lots of children very young came to me. Possibly inspired by the location, I wondered how much of religion was designed around somehow making sense of the death of children.