Oct. 17th, 2009

lederhosen: (Default)
Have been looking at the coverage of the pram that rolled off a platform onto train tracks in Melbourne the other day, and I made the mistake of looking at some of the comments.

*sigh*

In no particular order:

- Yes, the mother was using her phone when it happened. Believe it or not, people with children sometimes need to communicate with the rest of the world, even in situations where a freak accident could conceivably happen.

- Yes, the platform does slope towards the tracks. This is because having water pool on the platform is in fact a safety hazard in itself.

- Yes, if the train had had ice-clearers fitted, the baby probably would've been in trouble. Had this happened on the banks of the green-greasy Limpopo full of crocodiles, or in the acidic fogs of Venus, the baby also would have been in trouble. But in Melbourne, not such an issue.

- Yes, the mother should've put the brakes on. But while everybody's engaging in smugness on that point, perhaps it's also worth noting that the things she did do right - buying a good sturdy pram and using the seatbelt instead of relying on gravity - almost certainly saved the kid's life.

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