Too Many In The Car

by Broken Promises 11 Replies latest jw experiences

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  OnTheWayOut

  We had a young mother with two young children who walked to the Kingdom Hall. She would show up for field recruiting and would want to get into a car group. I asked her one time whether she had child seats. "NO." I wouldn't put her in a car group as the law required such. "Well, what am I supposed to do?" I offered to walk to a territory with her. She went home all mad.

  I actually gave her two used car seats to solve the problem, but she left them at home and showed up with the young children with the same situation. I guess she hoped I wasn't going to be there because others simply belted her kids in the back seat. Regardless of the fact that this woman is a "sister," the children's father was not a JW and I told others not to break the law to accomodate her. I was sure that if ever hurt, she (or certainly the father) would say the driver allowed an illegal and unsafe condition and would sue.

  Finally, I told her to simply leave the two child seats in the storage room on the outside of the Kingdom Hall and to use them every single time she asked for a ride. I imagine she didn't do it when I wasn't there.
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  WTWizard

  I have seen this situation all too often in field circus. The back seat holds three people--but was meant for one of them to be a child. You are not going to squeeze 3 people in the back seat, plus the littera-trash, if they are all around or more than 200 pounds. I have seen it where I could not get a seat belt on because of this situation.

  I have also had seat belts that were not working. On more than one occasion, I fished a seat belt out from under the seat--and sometimes, I was not successful at getting it out and buckled securely. I viewed it as a "sin" (disregarding life) to not have a seat belt on while the car was in motion, since not only could I get hurt but I could hurt someone else by flying into them. A seat belt would prevent that from happening.

  But, the worst was when the floor of the car was falling apart. I have been in two witless cars where I could see the road clearly from the seat (doors closed), and the floor moved visibly when someone gets into or out of the car. Usually, I am not especially picky when it comes to getting a ride, but I did speak up and suggest that they get the problem fixed before the seat falls onto the road while the car is doing 55 MPH. For that one, I will nag each time I get in the car and find the problem not fixed (because I do not want to be in the car when the seat finally falls onto the road). And, one of those cars belonged to a hounder, and the problem was not fixed for more than a whole year!