Trying to kill kids

wroughtn_harv · Jul 15, 2002

I've built some cages for go karts.

It isn't the turning over so much I fear. After all they don't put cages or belts on racing carts and some of them go way over a hundred miles per hour.

It's hitting things.

A friend of mine had a neighbor over one Sunday evening. The neighbor's kid wanted to ride the go kart. So they let him. As the kid came down the drive he forgot how to stop and hit the throttle. It happened he was aimed right at the bumper of the three quarter ton Chevy pickemup.

Bud tackled the kid just prior to impact. Probably saved the kid's life. But he was still careflighted to the children's hospital with severe injuries.

It doesn't take much imagination to get sick to the stomach at the thought of a kid on a go kart crashing into a barbwire fence at speed.

knucklehead · Jul 15, 2002

I agree that it is not safe, and that we used to do the same thing - I was going to start out with "what's wrong with it with a little common sense", but then I remembered.............we outlawed that in the 70's /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

It'd be neat to come up with some cartoons contrasting, say, a tire swing from the 60's, and the product as it would be required to be manufactured today. My wife and I are still LOL whenever we go by a school that has or is in the process of tearing down their huge and extravagant heavy wood beam, used tire, and chain playground/castle/monstrosity that cost $50,000 to build for the children. They are now deemed unsafe because of a few cracks and splinters, or someone might get their finger stuck in the chain, plus the tires are considered hazardous waste (as opposed to the "history" taught inside the school building?). And of course they can't replace them with good old iron fixtures - it must be carnival colors and equally as extravagant as the efforts of 15-20 years ago. We're smug in the fact that we considered the initial swell of enthusiasm to be more of a parental keeping up with the Joneses (between towns) than an effort to please kids, and that the playgrounds would turn into a problem due lack of maintenance and poor construction methods. Aren't we nasty old Grinches? /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

Wish I'd been smart enough to slide by and pick up the wood - /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

centex · Jul 15, 2002

It looks a lot like what all of my friends and I grew up driving except for lack of a seat back. Funny thing is that none of us ever got hurt on them. I think we were just not stupid enough to drive them on hills and ditches where we could turn them over and get hurt. In fact we spun them many, many times and I still don't know how you could turn one over but I am sure there is a way if you really want to. Of course we were not allowed to ride them on the street.

patrickg · Jul 15, 2002

Ozarker, You can get away with condeming the idiot parents now, before a kid gets killed, but after a kid gets killed the parents are punished by their grief and any attempt to point out that their's was criminal negligence and should be prosecuted will result in a ^*)(^% not unlike the thread titled something like "Prosecute the parents" which might make interesting reading for you if you develope insomnia or your Sat TV is blanked out by too much water in the rcv path.

Patrick

Ozarker · Jul 16, 2002

I cutting grass today and stopped to talk to him. I told him I would be glad to help him finish it with a roll cage and seat if he would go scrounge up the materials. I have a seat belt in a van I'm parting out that would be perfect for it once we weld in a bracket. I think he'll take me up on the offer.

MikePA · Jul 16, 2002

I told him I would be glad to help him finish it with a roll cage and seat if he would go scrounge up the materials. I have a seat belt in a van I'm parting out that would be perfect for it once we weld in a bracket. I think he'll take me up on the offer. 

While this is certainly very kind of you, are you sure you want to assume this potential liability should someone be injured, or worse, on a vehicle you've worked on?

Ozarker · Jul 16, 2002

Liability isn't an issue if I am helping him install his parts. I didn't tell him I would do it. I told him I would help him do it. And that is what I will do. Help him do it.

It is no different that if you come to my house because I have a floor jack and I help you rotate your tires. If one of them falls off later it isn't because of my jack. It is because you failed to make sure all the lug nuts were tight on your car.

You are the supervisor. I am the helper.

s1120 · Jul 16, 2002

If one of them falls off later it isn't because of my jack. It is because you failed to make sure all the lug nuts were tight on your car. 

Sadly that is not always the case these days. No one seems to want to take any responsablty for there actions. It is a sad time when people don't want to help anyone, becouse they may get sued

AndyR · Jul 18, 2002

When I was a much younger lad (late 60's early 70's) I built a go cart (more like a soapbox racer) out of old parts and boards. 'Even had a steering wheel, a 6 volt car battery and this huge old truck horn mounted on the nose. An old chair without the legs made for the seat. After school, we would drag it up the top of a good sized hill and have fund riding it down the street (farm country, not much traffic back then). Never forgot the time a friend came over and ended up wiping out, ripping open his knee and splitting the battery. Nowadays they'd probably arrest you for making something like that but we all had a blast!

Hawkflyer · Jul 18, 2002

Just how stupid are some people anyway?Ozarker - Couldn't help notice that you asked this question like there might be some limit to peoples stupidity. So far my experiance is that people have a boundless capacity for stupidity./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif