Not Safe at School
August 19, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
A Tennessee high school student, Eric L died on August 18th after suffering head trauma at the Byington-Solway Career and Technical Center last Wednesday. Law was autistic and a special education student. From VolunteerTV.com
Oaks says two employees are on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. Oaks says the student fell from a vehicle, but would not elaborate on the details because of the ongoing investigation into the incident.
Attorney Greg Isaacs identifies the student as Eric Law. Isaacs is representing Law’s family, and says Eric was a special education student with autism.
Isaacs says, according to his investigation, a teacher got permission from the school’s principal to move some tables, and Eric was in the bed of a student’s truck when he fell and suffered serious head trauma.
According the Knox County Sheriff’s Office report, Eric was “taken to the office and his mother was notified. His mother arrived and transported (him) in her vehicle to Baptist West.”
When we were living in St. Louis, around 2000, a student in a Special School District school died after being restrained; the student apparently stopped breathing.Needless to say, one hopes at the least that schools are safe.
I’m sure you know that bad things happen to good people, autistic, not autistic and everyone else. An automatic response to find fault or lay blame doesn’t seem fair to any of the parties.
Our hearts go out to everyone involved.
I’d like to know why the student was in a truck?
Well, it was a high school and high school age kids do drive and ride in trucks, the teacher had permission to move some tables and to do so probably took a vehicle large enough, etc., etc.
Could it have been a horrible accident and not someone’s fault?
Certainly a horrible accident; long time since I’ve seen anyone riding in a truck bed without a seatbelt, around here.
I think the question is whether the students were properly supervised,
“The family’s attorney said his early investigation indicates Law had been instructed to help other students move furniture from one end of the high school campus to the other, and that Law was thrown from the back of a pickup truck when the (student) driver slowed down to let another student on.
In a letter to Knox County Schools, attorney Greg Isaacs said Law’s death could have been avoided if students had been properly supervised by staff at the Byington-Solway Career and Technical Education Center at Karns.
Isaacs went on to question the school allowing students to operate a motor vehicle on school property with unrestrained students in the back of a pickup truck.”
Another followup
New details emerge on death of Karns student
(Just a question–Do other folks with pickups have belts in the truck beds? Is that SOP in NJ? We’ve had 3 pickups–all with belts in the cabs, but not in the bed. Strictly speaking, it’s legal here over a certain age to allow a person to ride in the bed, and my understanding is that in TN it is legal over the age of 12 under certain conditions but it’s never safe and I’d never put a living thing in the open cab).
Sorry, that link was
New details emerge on death of Karns student
NJ Law on Seat Belts (which became a particularly big deal here after our governor got into a serious accident and was found to not have been wearing a seat belt):
http://www.state.nj.us/oag/hts/seatbelts.html
New Jersey’s Seat Belt Law: (NJS 39:3-76.2f)
Applies to all passenger vehicles including vans, pickup trucks and SUV’s, that are required to be equipped with seat belts.
Applies to all passengers, who are at least 8 years of age but less than 18 years of age, and each driver and front seat passenger of a passenger automobile, operated on a street or highway. All occupants are required to wear a properly adjusted and fastened seat belt system.
Makes the driver responsible for proper seat beltuse by all occupants who are under the age of 18.
New Jersey’s Child Passenger Law:
Children up to age 8 or 80 pounds must ride in a safety or booster seat in the rear seat of the vehicle. If there is no rear seat, the child must sit in the front seat secured by a child safety seat or booster seat.
Children under age 8 who weigh more than 80 pounds must wear a seat belt anywhere in the vehicle.
Passengers age 8 to 18 (regardless of weight ) must wear a seat belt anywhere inside a vehicle.
Thank you Kristina. So the regulations on restraint devices inside of vehicles are similar to here; we have a pretty hefty fine.
What I was wondering about was passenger rules for the cargo areas/beds because on occasion I have seen people sitting in the backs of open pickups.
Restrictions on riding in cargo areas of pickups
Current laws and exemptions/ restrictions on riding in cargo areas and the major gaps or exemptions in those laws
This links to safety belt use laws in the states.
August 2008
What happened to Eric Law tragically illustrates that riding in the open cargo area really is not safe, even if one is close to the age of majority and even within the letter of statute. My thoughts are with his parents.
It is hard to believe in this day and age that anyone working at a school would ever allow a student to ride in the back of a truck. I saw a lot of head trauma in medical school and residency related to people falling off/out of the cargo areas of trucks.
My car was stolen in 1992. It was found stripped to the metal. The police said that the ring they caught a week later sold the bucket seats down in Mexico that are then bolted into the cargo areas of trucks for people to ride in. I doubt they were/are belted in.
My heart goes out to Eric’s parents. We do trust the schools with our kids lives. We shouldn’t have to tell them to not do something like this, they should know better.