To the editor:
At about 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11, there were three middle school-age kids walking toward Aurora Heights Elementary on East 25th Street. I was driving home and not in a hurry, so I was doing about 15 mph as I approached them.
At first, the kids were moving to the side of the road to let me through, then one of the kids decided to shove another into traffic. This irritated me as a driver and as a mom but I passed it off as childish stupidity.
The other girl then shoved her friend into traffic, by this point I was so close to them that I almost hit them. I had to stomp on the brakes so hard that I ended up leaving tire marks on the pavement.
Had the girl stumbled at all I would have hit and severely hurt, if not killed, this young girl. Because of the sudden stop in movement my 3-year-old daughter ended up with a seatbelt burn from her car seat straps on her collarbone.
Now I know that this is the point of a car seat, to keep them in place and safe, but this entire situation could have been avoided had these kids not acted so immature and unsafe. My passenger (my mom) got out of the car and made it very clear to the three kids that their actions could have been fatal.
We then told them that if the small child in the car ended up with marks from her car seat because of this incident the police would be informed. We called the police and gave them all of the information from the incident. The police know who the kids are, and if this circulates, I am sure their parents/guardians will know, as well.
I am not looking for these kids to be punished, just educated. I would also like to see these kids apologize. If I had not been going so slow, these kids would be in the hospital or in a casket. I would not be able to live with myself knowing that I had killed someone, even if it wasn’t my fault.
I am asking that as a parent you make sure your children know when it's OK to be childish and when it's not. If the situation can become unsafe, it's not OK. Please teach your children to use caution when walking in the street.
I also think that we should push for more sidewalks, especially near schools and playgrounds.
Brittany Eckert
Newton