She says ...

Press, 28 August 1980, Page 23

She says ...

I worry about children in cars. Left by themselves, or allowed to use cars as “playhouses” when at home (something I regard with horror) they are exposed to all sorts of dangers. From time to time, news reports tell us of instances in which tragedies have resulted. Cars are not play-things. They are dangerous machines. Toddlers, in particular, are curious, love experimenting and tinkering with things, and can be extraordinarily manipulative. Knobs and switches fascinate them. Levers are easy to use. Just think of the number of times you have heard of youngsters, left alone, setting vehicles off down hills . . . not only have they managed to release the handbrake, but in many cases they have also succeeded in putting the car out of gear. Not intentionally, no doubt — not even knowingly. But think of the results. I was horrified the other day to see a mother pull up behind our car, leave her own car with the engine running and a two or three-year-old in the back seat, and hurryoff into a shop. Within seconds, the toddler had •scrambled over into the front seat to play with the controls, and I moved our car forwards smartly before the youngster succeeded in finding the hanbrake or the transmission lever — or both. Fortunately the absence of Mother seemed to have more impact than the fas- ' cination of knobs and levers, and a few seconds later the youngster opened the front door (the pavement side, luckily) and toddled off across the pavement towards the shop. The possibility of disaster was certainly there, it was only luck that in spite of the mother’s foolish behaviour nothing went wrong. _____