Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Flinging the door open while driving


How many times have I said "Don't let that sweet face fool you". I remember being around 10 years old, and driving around in the back seat of the car with my parents. No seat belts in those days of course. I used to think, there's no stopping me from just opening that car door and flinging myself out. If we are driving, would the pressure of the wind keep the door shut? I could just reach out and touch the handle - no, don't touch it! I had the crazy thoughts, but never acted on it.

This past weekend while I was driving the kids back from grocery shopping after a soccer game, a rather long afternoon, Dova pulls this one. I stopped briefly at an intersection before making a left turn and I hear Dova fiddling with the right rear car door. Next thing I know, it flings wide open as I go around the turn. Thankfully, she was safely buckled into her booster seat and I was able to pull over immediately. Screaming at the top of my lungs, I ran outside, activated the child lock and slammed the door shut. I blame this stunt on "trusting" Dova to open the car door only when we asked her to, using the Toyota Echo which has a really light door instead of my car which she can't open at all, and the perfect timing of opening the right door during a left turn. I asked her why she did it and she simply replied that she wanted to get out. Both kids were snickering the whole time I was yelling on the way back. She wasn't so happy when she found out that she could no longer open her door when we got home though.

2 comments :

Bigqueue said...

Oh yes, one of those scary thoughts I had as a parent knowing that I was driving up front and not able to get back to stop my daughter from falling out.

Luckily this never happened to me, and we all survived.

When I was a kid I used to play with the door all the time. Not so much when we were driving....but at one point I opened the door and it somehow was closed on my hand.

Thank goodness youung bones are flexible.....I went for xrays and all was OK. (very painful still, but nothing broken)

Kids are always pushing the limits I guess.

Anonymous said...

Our cats are twins!