Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

Driver Smashes Through House, Hits Baby in Crib. Police: No Biggie!

Via Seattle Bike Blog
Whoopsie! Via Seattle Bike Blog
false

If you're behind the wheel of a car, law enforcement will let you get away with just about anything -- even smashing into a house and pulverizing a crib where an infant was sleeping.

Guess what the police had to say after a driver in the Seattle suburbs did just that? Here's the story from Tom Fucoloro at Seattle Bike Blog:

Someone learning to drive “mistook” the gas pedal for the brake and smashed through the wall of the Hampton Greens Apartments near the Bellevue/Redmond border Tuesday morning.

The person driving continued into a baby’s room and crushed the crib where the nine-month-old boy was sleeping.

His parents rushed into the room and dug him out of the rubble that used to be his bedroom. By some miracle, the baby was not hurt.

But after only a couple hours of investigation, Bellevue Police decided that nothing illegal had transpired.

“It was purely accidental,” BPD spokesperson Seth Tyler told the Seattle Times. “Our past practice is that we don’t cite the driver in that kind of instance.”

No harm, no foul. Cars will be cars.

No charges of endangering a child. No charges of property damage. Not even a token $42 ticket for “unsafe lane change.”

Our culture of absolving people of all responsibility when -- and only when -- they are behind the wheel of a car is the stuff of dystopian novels. It’s a world gone mad with motor brain. When you are behind the wheel of a car, you are responsible for what happens with that car. So, accident or not, when you drive through the wall of a child’s bedroom and smash his crib around him, you are responsible for that. Nobody else is. That car did not drive itself. A person drove it.

There is no other imaginable scenario where a person could endanger a baby’s life like this and get away without any recourse. But if you are behind the wheel of a car, the law lines up to protect you.

Elsewhere on the Network: Governor Scott Walker has proposed a new tax on the sale of bikes -- and only bikes -- reports James Rowen at The Political Environment, noting that Walker's opponent in the last gubernatorial election was an executive at the Trek Bicycle Company. Stop and Move reports that new bus routes linking Fresno to Yosemite will also provide the first expansion of local transit service in 10 years. And Streets.mn makes the case that America's dangerous roads are a much more urgent public safety threat than passenger rail crashes.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

What Are University Transportation Centers — And Why Did Secretary Duffy Decimate Their Budgets?

University Transportation Centers are "where innovation happens." Earlier this month, though, the Trump administration took a sledgehammer to their budgets.

May 19, 2025

Monday’s Big, Beautiful Headlines

Ride-hailing and delivery apps are backing the Republican reconciliation bill because it includes a tax exemption for drivers' tips.

May 19, 2025

Friday Video: A Deep Dive on the Endless Debate Over Bike Helmets

Everything you need to know the next time someone asks you if you're "for or against" bike helmets.

May 16, 2025

Disrupting Friday’s Headlines

Elevator pitch: Buses, but they only seat six people, and you have to book one ahead of time.

May 16, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: Running to Work

Bridge engineer Daniel Baxter on his almost daily running commute in Minneapolis.

May 15, 2025
See all posts