Reader comments
2-year-old run over by lawn mower

Shylock | 10:40 a.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Never let your children ride with you on your lawnmower. I hope CFPS is reading this article and investigates.

Jessica | 10:58 a.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Why in the world would you put a 2yr old BEHIND you on a 4 wheeler anyway???? No matter what you were doing. If the child is going to ride, put them in front of you so you can hold on to them or at least they have something to hold on to. The span of the seat is always more narrow in the front and their little legs will fit better than in the back. Some adults have trouble sitting behind an adult on the back of one of those. Some people have no common sense!

Jake | 11:02 a.m. Aug. 7, 2008

This stupidity is scary, a 2 year old being allowed to do this by her father is totally ignorant. He should be arrested and tried for child endangerment and child abuse. He really needs to attend child rearing and SAFTEY classes,after he gets out of jail.

Comments continue below

kate | 12:43 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Just another example of idiot parents. He should be charged with something. Send a message to other idiot parents thatyou must use caution when your small kids are around. don't tell me this could happen to anyone. I get so sick of everyone making excuses.

Anonymous | 12:56 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Notify Texas CPS so they can round up every child who lives in a home that has a lawnmower.

Awful! | 1:04 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Some parents don't deserve to be parents.

Observer | 1:53 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

What is going on with all of these parents who are leaving kids in their cars on hot days, allowing them to wander off, abusing them. It seems to be getting worse, and I doubt if it's just more press coverage. It appears that the self indulgent society is finally getting to the child bearing age and look at their children as they look at everything else......as things to use or throw away.

Experience | 2:01 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

I was three when I was run over by a riding lawnmower driven by my father. He is certainly not an idiot, the best man I know. No matter what some people think or don't want to hear, it CAN happen to anyone. Kids will always be unpredictable. You people that have kids should know that already. It is unfortunate that strangers can be so quick to judge and spew their spiteful venom. The parents are already suffering enough.

P.S. Your kids will still love you.

CP | 2:12 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

What is happening with the common sense of parents of small children?? Good grief - no child belongs on the back of a riding lawn mower or on the back of anything!! Just because the father was driving the thing doesn't make it safe. Gee wiz parents just are not thinking anymore. Now that poor little child has 2 missing toes and what ever else cause of the stupidity of her father. And I call missing 2 toes pretty severe.

Anonymous | 2:21 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Wow what a lucky girl. An Angel must have been watching over her!

Overreaction? | 2:28 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

I think a lot of people in here are overreacting. There are such things as accidents. You people keep talking like he is a bad parent. My 2 and a half year old absolutely loves lawn mowers and he rides on a sit down mower with me all the time (yes he is in front of me and yes I am very careful). I would argue that I am a great parent and am very careful not to endanger my son. Just because this family had an accident doesn't make him a bad father.
Knowing my son he will probably get hurt at one point or another because he has so much energy and is always running around. That's life.
Pull your head out people.

BotchedExperiment | 2:28 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

I wish we'd all stop calling this type of occurence an "accident". An accident is reasonably unavoidable and/or unpredictable. This was neither.

Belgie | 2:39 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

I'm sure the father feels horrible, and he'll never let anything like this happen again. But, come on. Letting a 2 year old ride with you on a 4-wheeler while you pull a mower BEHIND you? It just doesn't get much more senseless than that.

John | 2:45 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Oh right so all of the people here have never had to take a child to the hospital? Your probably going to be mad when your child grows up and is scared to go outside by themselves. Let the children be free.

voice of reason | 2:48 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

thank you "experience". What happened to this little child is really awful, but, I don't believe there was one ounce of intent in her accident. Parents just make assumptions sometimes, such as: this could never happen to me or I can always protect my children. I am constantly amazed at the tirades that come out of people's mouths. A relative of mine (years back) had her sister (9) riding in the back of a PU she was driving. Went around a corner and the sister fell out and was killed. No one could ever possibly punish my neice as much as she did herself. I'm beginning to think this state is devoid of compassion and understanding. Too bad. I was taught all my life not to judge anyone if I haven't walked in their shoes.

James | 3:10 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Accidents are going to happen, and whenever they do, there's always the chorus of people feeding off tragedy with the "I-told-you-so's" and "I would never...". Just because this guy had some misfortune doesn't make you better than him.

to voice of reason | 3:23 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

This state is not void of compassion and understanding. It is devoid of parents who use common sense. Sorry an innocent nine year old was killed because of stupidity, but that's the truth. She had no business riding in the back of a truck and apparently her parents hadn't instructed others in the family about the dangers of such foolish behavior. I guess some people have to learn the hard way. It's also a way of insuring stupidity isn't passed on to future generations.

Glad to see.... | 3:25 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Big difference between the posts at the top and then as they start to slide to the bottom. Accidents happen, I think we should be amazed the father wanted to be with his daughter. I'm sure he feels terrible. Involve CPS? Please, with Utah being the Meth Mom capital of the world there are others they could look into.

Anonymous | 3:27 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Over reaction and Experience

I think you are the people that most of the posts are referring to on here. No one is saying that you must coddle children and protect their every move. Yes, accidents will happen... But this could have been avoided had the father used more common sense. A child must be in a car seat or booster seat until they are older, not just to protect them in the event of an accident, but also to keep them from climbing around the car. Kids have a hard time sitting still. This poor child could have been looking behind to see what the mower was doing.

To Voice of reason... in many states it is against the law to ride in the bed of a pickup. The incident you related is the exact reason. Its just stupid.

Dallas | 3:37 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

This was no accident--this is extremely poor judgment. An accident would be if she were standing on the sidewalk and tripped into the path of the lawnmower.

hey James | 3:56 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

there is a huge difference between an accident and stupidity and this was no accident. The fact that I along with millions of other parents have NEVER allowed a 2 year old to ride on the back of an ATV while towing a lawn mower with SHARP MOVING BLADES does indeed make us far better parents than he is. It also makes us far more intelligent.

There are reasons for warnings.. | 3:58 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

All four wheelers have a big label on them that says "single riders only". Accidents like these are the reason why... What a moron.

Oh, and James @ 3:10pm. There is a difference between misfortune and stupidity. This case is the latter.

Richard G. | 3:59 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Overreaction: Sorry, but you ARE a bad parent if you let a kid ride your lawnmower with you. It is just plain stupid and asking for trouble.

voice of reason: your compassion is nice, but brainless. there has been an incredible spate of needless deaths of children this year due to stupid, stupid parens leaving them in hot cars, puttingn them on ATVs, letting them wander off and drown, backing over them in driveways, ad nauseum. And they keep happening despite publicity. Someone needs to yell loud enough to make these idiots learn to stop moronically endangering their chidlren's lives.

Think!!!! | 4:14 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

"Hind sight" has always been better than "Fore sight." I like Experience's comment, also voice of reason and James. It is refreshing to hear there is a little compassion for the misfortunate since there has been very little of that going around UTAH, ARIZONA, NEVADA and TEXAS lately.

Overreaction? | 4:41 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

To Anonymous @ 3:27. We are talking about different things, my son is always buckled up in a car.

To Richard G. Your statement is ridiculous. You call me a bad parent because of 1 paragraph? However, I can see your point. Lawnmowers could be very dangerous (obviously). My son always HAS to sit between my legs and if he gets squirmy, I make him go to my wife (he has since learned that if he wants to ride the lawnmower, he has to be still and pay attention). Also, when I get the push mower out, he gets his plastic push mower and follows me for as long as I am out. Every Tuesday night he get so excited he jumps up and down because he gets to mow the lawn with daddy.
So I do disagree with you saying that allowing him to ride a lawn mower makes me a bad parent. I get to hang out with him for 2 hours (hard enough to find time with work), give my wife a break, and teach him that even though work has to be done, it can be fun and meaningful.

Smarts... | 4:43 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

I don't want to risk it with my 2 year old. I just let him ride all by himself when he cuts the lawn. That way there is LESS risk of him falling off and running over himself. Besides...we get more work done this way. I am twice as effective.

Anonymous | 6:02 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

Hey,
I held both my toddlers on my riding mower. The lawn was never mowed straight and always had to be finished later but I held them and they held me. The back of an ATV is VERY different because the child cannot be seen nor held.
The guy is probably one of those fun loving guys that really thinks bad stuff only happens to other people.
I am certain it was not intentional THEREFORE it was an accident!

some lessons are harder to learn | 6:05 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

It's unbelievable how high and mighty some of you come across. While the father may have made a poor decision he didn't set out to do so and he isn't an idiot or a horrible parent. All parents make mistakes...yes even all of you who are so quick to condemn. That's just part of being human. My thoughts and prayers go out to this family.

2 voice of reason | 8:15 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

how many drunks get behind the wheel and intend to hurt someone? intention means absolutely nothing. stupid is as stupid does.

to experience | 8:21 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

how unfortunate for you to have a father who ran over you with a riding mower be the best man you know. these "accidents" are natures way of ensuring that stupidity is not passed on to the next generation. the best men I know are PROTECTORS of their families, not the ones putting them in danger in the first place. my kids were kept indoors when a power mower was being used because we were told that rocks or other objects could be thrown out of the side of the mower and cause serious injury if it hit someone. i remember a pregnant woman being hit in the abdomen by an object propelled by a lawn mower as she sat on her front porch.

to richard g | 9:07 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

I wholeheartedly agree. However I think that charging every one of these stupid parents with a crime might get the attention of other stupid parents. Public outrage doesn't seem to mean a thing. We get the emos (other stupid parents) who whine about how this could happen to anyone. Smart parents know that you can't protect your kids against every danger, but they know there are PLENTY of dangers we can and do protect them from, such as hot cars, boat docks and lawn mowers. We also don't let them roam the neighborhood unsupervised. Smart parents are an asset to their neighborhood and people are sad to see them move. Stupid parents don't realize that celebrations are held the minute the moving van leaves. Your nice Mormon neighbors may not say anything to your face, but believe me, they talk after you're gone. Some stupid parents are legendary and spoken of with disgust for years afterward.

Rob | 10:31 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

My kids have always been taught to stay far away from a running lawnmower. When they were little when they heard a lawn mower being turned on they ran away. Better safe than sorry later. No child should ever ride on a riding lawn mower with anyone. A child following behind a parent mowing is very dangerous also. Just because a child likes something does not mean they can do it. You are there to teach and protect. Please do it.

Mower blades are dangerous right | 11:27 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008

A similar story was just on Dateline, where a 3 year old boy was run over. The parents let the 6 year old boy drive the mower towing a trailer with the 3 year old in it. The kid tried to drive it up a hill and couldn't make it. The mower rolled back and on top of the 3 year old. I sympathize with these parent, but 2 and 3 year old children don't belong anywhere near really fast spinning blades.

insensitive | 12:15 a.m. Aug. 8, 2008

to:to experience | 8:21 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008
your comments about accidents preventing the propagation of stupidity are simply not true, you are living proof.

to: 2 voice of reason | 8:15 p.m. Aug. 7, 2008
how many drunks...? Probably around the same number of socially retarded bloggers like yourself.

Fact is neither of you know what precautions the father took before letting the child climb on. Perhaps the child was wearing a helmet and chain mail. Perhaps the child climbed on without the father knowing.

I once saw a man yell at a girl on a opposing soccer team for not throwing the ball in properly, two hands directly over her head. He felt really stupid and was full of regret when he noticed that she only had one arm.

Settle down and let this be a learning experience. Well, probably not since it seems you both and some of the others seem to already know everything.

Teresa | 9:09 a.m. April 19, 2009

The best place for a child to be when you are mowing the lawn is inside the house. Period. Just because they want to ride with you doesn't mean you should let them. They want to play with scissors too..Do you let them do that?

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