An auto accident involving a single vehicle injured six children near Davie last week-end. The driver of a pickup truck, who was not licensed to drive, let the children ride in the truck and they were injured as they were thrown about the pickup bed. Luckily, none of the children were seriously injured.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the 34 year-old driver was arrested on “cruelty toward a child, operating a motor vehicle without a valid license, possession of an open container, failure to wear a seat belt as well as other traffic-related charges”.
According to the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), most states have enacted laws prohibiting drivers from allowing anyone to ride in the back of a pickup, either an open bed or a covered bed. Yet there were thirty-five children or teens under the age of twenty killed both in 2005 and 2006.
Common sense would tell you that if your child must have be strapped into a car seat or seat belt in car in order to be safe, then it is not safe for them to ride freely in a pick up bed.
