I agree that the parents should take responsability......BUT....if the vehicle was supposed to have the brake lock switch and it either didn't have it or it malfunctioned....then the auto maker needs to take some blame also.

 

Okay...But if the kid didn't have ACCESS to the Keys, then there's NO SQUISHED KID!!

 

absolutely agree with you, I am just going by what I did as a kid....I snuck my dad's keys many times and jumped in the truck pretending I was driving. Sure I heard about it when I got caught, but kids will be kids. Hell once I even learned how to push in the clutch on his 79 chevy 1/2 ton and ended up in the middle of the street....boy did I get my *** kicked for that

 

I was real bad. At 14 I filed a blank key by hand using my mom's key , a hand file and a blank. I put so much mileage on her car they had it checked for a fuel tank leak. Thank God I never had a kid like me but I am OK now.

 

This is just another segment in the chronicles of the death of personal responsibility in America. And liberals killed it.

Funny story:

A liberal and a conservative are walking along a road when they hear moans from the side of the road in a ditch. They both scramble down into the ditch to find a man near death, having been beaten and robbed.

The conservative says, "Who did this to you? We have to find him so that he can pay for this terrible crime committed against you."

The liberal says, "Are you kidding? We have to find the man who did this to you, find out why he did it, help him, and blame someone else!"

 

in your opinion. I'm not a liberal and I think that companies that are making millions by overpricing cars today SHould take some responsability when part of their car malfuntions causing death/injury...I'm not saying all of it but some would be nice. There are two sides to every coin, for one if the kid didn't have the keys he would still be alive....but also if the lockout would have worked as it should of then he would also still be alive.

 

The article states that there is no law mandating cars to have the brake interlock, so on what grounds can you sue the auto maker? Also, the article doesn't say how old the truck is. It could be old enough that the interlock wasn't even designed yet. You cant blame the auto manufaturer for not putting something on a vehicle that wasn't available during assembly, otherwise you could sue for every accident where somebody got hurt for not wearing a seatbelt in a car built prior to 1965.
This instance comes back to poopr decisions made by the parents. The keys need to be kept in a safe place away from the vehicle, and the parking brake always used. Aside form the issues highlighted here, keys left in a vehicle cause for easy theft as well. This can complicate things with insurance too when you file a claim because it brings up doubt as to weather you were in on it or not.
Has anyone noticed that you can do the same thing with a manual transmission, no keys required? When I was 3 my parents had a 1971 International 1 ton pickup. My mom went grocery shoping, "just for a few items." She left us three kids in the truck. I got messing with stuff and knocked the truck out of gear. My 7 year old sister had to spend the next 20 minutes pressing with all of her might on the brake to keep it from rolling until Mom showed back up again. If my sister's poor little legs had given out, the truck would have rolled into a very busy road. Kid's actions are a direct result of parental influances or lack of.

 

I wasn't really commenting on the article in my last comment Linus, I was referancing my first post
I was just talking about if say our h3's brake interlock failed and one of our kids got run over.....that I feel the responsability should be shared between parents and auto maker....not really talking about the article in particular.