Mother, 6-month-old daughter killed in car-truck collision

please don't use this sad story as a platform for promoting your views on how stay at home mothers are superior. To blame her for the crash because she was exhausted from working is completely unfair

I missed this bit first time round, then couldn't post again because of JT's no-two-posts-in-a-row policy.

I'm not blaming her for the crash at all. If it turns out that the situation was as I have surmised, I would blame those who want to push mothers out to work virtually before the umbilical cord is dry. She should have had the support needed to stay at home at least until the baby reached her first birthday; instead all we hear about from the politicians is getting women back to work and how it's a waste to let female labour sit at home. Superiority has nothing to do with it. With a 6-month-old baby, we're not talking about sahms vs working mothers; we're talking about postpartum women being given the time needed to recover from pregnancy and labour (not to mention the sleepless nights) and develop the proper relationship with the child that comes from prolonged close contact and leisurely feeding in a quiet, soothing atmosphere.

kimuzukashii: "I agree with you that I hope the little boy and the driver get well soon, but please don't use this sad story as a platform for promoting your views on how stay at home mothers are superior."

I don't see Cleo doing that at all, though I like the slap-down she gave you after.

RIP to the child and the mother. Whether or not they had child seats, the mom was tired, or whatever; mom and one child are dead.

It says nowhere in the article the reason why she was out so late, or that she is a working mother, or single, at all.

There is more information available than what is in this short article. The vernacular FNN describes the mother as 飲食店店員 (a restaurant worker) and says that the car contained 家族3人 (a family of three). Agreed there is no direct statement that she was on her way home from work, but it seems more likely than not. Why else would she have the children in the car at that time of night? I find it hard to believe that a single mum of two would have the wherewithal or the energy to be out gallivanting at that time of night. I could be wrong, of course.

For all you know she could be a stay at home mother who drank a bottle of wine before she got in that car.

We know she was not a sahm. If she were, she and the baby might still be alive. And there's no mention anywhere of her being under the influence. Now who's being judgmental and presumptuous?

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/videonews/fnn?a=20130909-00000474-fnn-soci

most nurseries are not open on a sunday.

You think working mothers don't work on a Sunday? Maybe in those high-paying career jobs that self-respecting, independent ladies choose to do they don't, but the nearer you get to minimum wage the less choice there is. And restaurants need their workers in at the weekend.

And as you probably know, a 6 month old at this time of year would have not been admitted into a public hoikuen in the first place.

Maybe it wasn't a proper, registered public hoikuen. In fact since it was a babe in arms, it most certainly wasn't. Maybe the restaurant has a creche. Or a part-timer who watches the kids in a back room. Who knows? All we know is that the kids weren't at home with a parent, a nanny or a granny.

There is nothing to suggest she was exhausted because of overwork - she could have easily been exhausted because she has a 6 month old who still wakes up during the night.

Duh. Show me a lady with a 6-month old baby, and I'll show you a lady suffering from severe overwork and lack of sleep and most likely not yet fully over the stress of pregnancy and labour. A lady who is seriously exhausted. And that's without factoring in paid work. Even less reason to imagine she would be out visiting friends and family at that time of night.

RIP

This is so sad. From the video at the link provided above by slumdog they first show a black oil mark on the road right at the onramp. This seems to be where the car ended up. We can speculate all we want but only the truck driver really knows what happened. And of course the police will have to determine where the impact was and interview the guy. I hope they come up with a fair assessment. (I had a friend recently hit and killed by a car as he was walking along a dark road late at night. I went to ask the police details of how they determined what happened aside from what the driver said. They were very friendly and gave details up to a point considering legal and privacy issues. I was impressed with their thoroughness and felt that there was a huge log of information, eg, measurements, calculations, and so on, that couldn't be revealed pending insurance claims. So, I feel in this case they should do a good job.) The car and truck both received extensive damage but it seems not as much as they would have if either vehicle were driving at a high rate of speed. There also appears to be a baby seat in the back although I can't make it out in the picture clearly. The mother received extensive damage to the head. The air bag where the little boy was sitting seems fully ejected and must have worked well, thank god. Poor little boy. (We can imagine all kinds of sad things here so I won't elaborate.) The saddest thing was the milk bottle lying on its side in the car.

The car the mother was driving was a "kei"compact car.

I now drive a normal sized car and not a death trap kei jidosha. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those she drove. Seat belts or not, they are tin cans. More details would tell us.

The car was probably a K-car. These are like a tin can and are smashed to almost nothing more than a smashed beer can in a collision at 50-60 km per hour. Japanese police is making a lot of fuss about reducing vehicle related deaths but as long as they manufacture and license such unsafe cars, we shall have loss of life at the expense of car companies.

Where does it say she worked at a resturant?

No law about driving home late. Rest in peace mother and child.

The accident happened quite close to the on-ramp. It is possible another car entered the road without stopping and the mother swerved into oncoming traffic. As others have pointed out, since the mother died in the accident, there is probably no way to determine exactly what happened. The FNN report is saying that the son was only lightly injured. Hopefully, he will pull through and that he has family to look after him.

Probably Mum driving them home from day care after her evening shift at the restaurant she worked at. This is the reality of working mothers - tired mums burning the candle at both ends, too tired to drive yet forced to, babies and toddlers being ferried around late at night instead of being tucked up in bed. Not all working mothers are nine-to-five, high-end career women with a nanny (or even a partner/husband/granny) to pick up the slack.RIP to the mother and her baby, commiserations to the little boy on the loss of his mum and sister. I hope the little boy and the truck driver get well soon.

Im sorry, but this is incredibly judgemental and presumptuous cleo. It says nowhere in the article the reason why she was out so late, or that she is a working mother, or single, at all.

Just to get nitpicky, most nurseries are not open on a sunday. And as you probably know, a 6 month old at this time of year would have not been admitted into a public hoikuen in the first place. There is nothing to suggest she was exhausted because of overwork - she could have easily been exhausted because she has a 6 month old who still wakes up during the night. For all you know she could be a stay at home mother who drank a bottle of wine before she got in that car.

I agree with you that I hope the little boy and the driver get well soon, but please don't use this sad story as a platform for promoting your views on how stay at home mothers are superior. To blame her for the crash because she was exhausted from working is completely unfair and completely premature - it says no where the reasons why this happened.

It was Sunday nighht, and like many other people, the mother was probably visiting friends or family for the weekend

More likely she was driving home from work. It's not easy for restaurant workers to take time off at weekends. If she had been visiting folk, I doubt she would choose to leave it so late to get the kids home. The lack of a Dad in the car also points more to a necessary journey than a family weekend caper.

It was Sunday nighht, and like many other people, the mother was probably visiting friends or family for the weekend, and was returning home. There is no law saying that you can't drove with your kids anytime you like.

As for the cause of the accident, who knows? Truck drivers often drive late at night to avoid the daytime traffic, and usually cause far fewer accidents than passenger car drivers. I know this because I was an accident investigator for law enforcement for 10 years. What likely happened is the mother was distracted while driving, which is common enough when driving with small children in the car. Taking your eyes off the road for even a single second can result in an accident like this one.

One has to ask why a 6 month old baby and a 4 year old were out so late?

Probably Mum driving them home from day care after her evening shift at the restaurant she worked at. This is the reality of working mothers - tired mums burning the candle at both ends, too tired to drive yet forced to, babies and toddlers being ferried around late at night instead of being tucked up in bed.

Not all working mothers are nine-to-five, high-end career women with a nanny (or even a partner/husband/granny) to pick up the slack.

RIP to the mother and her baby, commiserations to the little boy on the loss of his mum and sister. I hope the little boy and the truck driver get well soon.

@ StormR: the baby was in the backseat, there is no indication whether or not the baby was in a special seat, chances are that it was and that it still did not survive the crash. Nonetheless a four year old in the frontseat still is not the best of ideas but nearly every parent does it at some point in time, because the kiddo's love it and rightly so.

@ Sherman: Really now? Is the next thing you're going to say that is the mothers fault because she went driving with the kids late at night, a time at which obviously all truckdrivers are driving like maniacs causing accident?

Everything on this website involving the death or injury of a child immediately leads to commentors implying that it is the fault of the parents. Why were the kids still out as this time? Where the parents not paying attention? And so on... without any information available on these subjects. Is everybody on here some kind of flawless superparent? Is it that weird to just wait for the facts before suggesting all kinds of possible causes?

Not a good way to start out a week. Sad indeed.o

Just because the accident involved a truck and a car does not me that everyone in the car will die.

Exactly, the son did survive the accident, although he is injured. Looking at the video I provided above, it does not seem like there was a child seat in the back of the car. I see many children not seated in them riding around. The rear of the car seems quite less damaged than the front of the car.

I can't understand anyone downplaying the importance of the use of child seats.

"Police said Monday they had not yet determined how the accident happened."

How have they not determined how it happened? Alcohol levels should have been tested and given the results by now, lanes are clearly marked, etc.

Just because the accident involved a truck and a car does not me that everyone in the car will die. It is dependent on what car, seat belts, air bags, child seats, how we'll the child was secured in the car seat and how well the cae seat was secured in the car. Other factors would be speed and impact area. I don't think that cars made for domestic use are as well built as those meant for the US market.

It seems like the police think the mother's car might have been riding over the center line when it got hit.

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/videonews/fnn?a=20130909-00000474-fnn-soci

Baby should not be in the front seat regardless of baby seat, the back seat in baby seat is the safest place and that is proven

Without knowing more details my money is on the truck driver being at fault.

kimuzukashiiii,

Point taken, but have you seen those photos posted in the restrooms of highway rest stops? Some of those cars were smashed up beyond recognition and children who were sitting in child seats survived unscathed. They have a better chance in them than out of them.

slumdog ... really?

Regardless of their seats, or whoevers fault it was, a small car vs a truck (probably 8 tonnes or more) means they probably had no chance. Very sad indeed.

I do not think the hour they were killed by the truck is as important as whether they were securely placed in child seats or not.

One has to ask why a 6 month old baby and a 4 year old were out so late? They should have been tucked up in bed well before this time. Truck drivers are a menace at night, drive too fast and on tight delivery schedules. So sad.