3 Die After Van Rolls Into Pond
Police: Van Rolls Downhill, Killing Woman, 2 Children
POSTED: 11:01 pm EDT July 4, 2007
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. --
Connecticut authorities say a woman chased her minivan as it rolled down a steep hill and jumped in before it sank into a pond, killing her and two children. A third child was in critical condition.
The woman, who was the mother of at least one of the children, had gotten out of the van, then noticed it was rolling away and jumped back in before it went into the water.
Police said the van rolled about 60 or 70 yards into a pond at a park where many people had gathered to celebrate the holiday.
People nearby tried unsuccessfully to stop the van.
The victims were trapped inside in 15 to 20 feet of water for 20 to 25 minutes before members of the Bridgeport police scuba team were able to pull them out.
All three children were younger than 7 years old.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I have always been shocked when I hear about a young child or baby dying in a house fire or other similar situations when the parents got out safely. I just don't understand how you could leave your child in the house. I said this way before I even had a child of my own. Now that I am a parent, I tell my husband if my son died in that fire I probably would be there with him. I cannot picture any scenario where I wouldn't go after him.
So, Matt, playing the devil's advocate, says what if the fire is in the hallway right outside Zachariah's window. Then what? I say, I try going through first. If that's not looking possible, I go out my window (our room is right next to his) and come in Zachariah's room. I'm tell you, I'd get him out or die trying.
If my car was heading into the water with my baby inside, I would have gone after it. I would have drown trying too. I honestly am not sure how someone could NOT do that.
Here is part of a story about a young mother and her family. I know this family. They live 2 houses down from my friends. Our church rebuilt their home, and I helped host a party to stock her new kitchen when it was finished.
Kelly and the three youngest Coby children were sleeping in the bedrooms on the second floor when the fire started. Rich was at work, though usually he didn't work Fridays, and their oldest son, Tyler, was at school. By the time 4-year-old Kaeley tried to wake her mom, smoke was rolling through the hallway and rooms of the second floor. Three times Kaeley shook her mom and tried to tell her about the smoke. At last, groggy from smoke she'd already breathed while sleeping, Kelly opened her eyes and saw dark curls of smoke crawling across the ceiling.
Out in the hall, the smoke was so thick Kelly could hardly see enough to gather her other two children. Once she had them, she looked for a way out. A small ray of sunlight broke through the smoke to lead Kelly to a window at the end of the hall. The three children and their mother climbed through the window, and walked across a burning porch roof in bare feet to escape the inferno behind them.
The part that the story doesn't tell is that this mom almost stopped fighting for a way out. The first thing she did was gather all her children together. She didn't think there was a way out. She said later that she sat there trying not to cry in front of her children and praying for their
lives. Then she did the hardest thing that any mother would ever be asked to do, she prayed that if they were to die in that fire there, that God would take her children first. You see, she didn't want them to see their mother die. Just thinking that brings tears to my eyes. What a horrible thing they went through. But as you saw they made it out miraculously, and everyone was completely safe. Thank God.
I think situations like these give us a little insight to what being a mother is really all about. It's sacrificing your own life for your kids. It's protecting your children from all the bad things in life. I just thank God that he has blessed my life with this precious little one to care for an protect.
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4 comments:
I have seen stories of fires and accidents where one parent DID go back to get the kids, but were unsuccessful. I think in that case I'd just die. Who wants to walk back out of the building, I'd want to end it all right there knowing they were trapped.
I am almost unable to think of stuff like this right now. All you have to do is say, "Baby dying," or "Parent dying," and I just lose it.
You know, I think sometimes the survival instinct in people IS a bad thing, because Jen's right- I think if I went back in a burning house or whatever and was unsuccessful at saving my kid, my rational mind would choose to just sit down and die, then. Probably your animal instincts kick in, though, and your body runs even if your heart is still in there.
BTW, I was SO not kidding about not being able to think of this stuff while pregnant and hormonal. Just now, after I commented, I tried to imagine how I would feel if Addy were trapped somewhere, dying, and it was on me to save her life, and I literally couldn't. My eyes just welled up and my brain said, "Stop! Don't go there! Can't take it!"
I have to push this kind of thing out of head because it is so hard to think about. Such terrible things can happen and it is difficult enough to think about other people going through them, I can't even consider myself in their shoes.
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