‘A family hit by a drowning tragedy had repeatedly pleaded with the council to build a fence where a toddler died.
Sukhraj Singh, 2, died and his cousin Archilles Kaui, 3, remains in hospital in a critical condition after the pair wandered into Gisborne’s Taruheru River on Thursday.
“I’ve been asking myself all night, would this have happened if the fence was put up in our neighbourhood? And the answer is no. Because those toddlers would not have been able to get past the fence”, Sukhraj’s uncle Hemi Jahnke said.’
But wait, there’s more:
‘……Before the tragedy, Archilles’ mother, Diana McIntyre, had been visiting Sukhraj’s mother, Jamie Taewa, at her home in Atkinson St. It was thought about 10 to 15 minutes passed before the women noticed the two toddlers had wandered off…’
Ten to fifteen minutes. Ten to fifteen minutes during which a 2 and a 3 year old are left unsupervised, close to water which the family had allegedly “pleaded with the council to fence”.
And I’m willing to bet they don’t even know what the word “culpability” means.
The sheep haven’t heard of personal responsibility. Of course the rest of us who provide a service have a “duty of care” and can be prosecuted for failure to do so.
Yes, it is a bloody typical response from those who cannot bear being responsible for themselves, let alone their children. Kiwis can always find somebody else to blame or carry the can for their stupidity, negligence and irresponsibility.
In America they’d be sueing for millions. And probably get it.
It is harder to sue in USA than one thinks. I heard recently of a guy who tried to sue the Chicago Transit Authority (not the old rock band) and was unsuccessful due to the presence of adequate warning signs directing people not to walk on train tracks…this guy did and lost his legs. The law firm he consulted specialises in suits against the Authority and advised him he had no case after looking at the signs, the positioning and illumination of them, plus the presence of loudspeakers alerting the danger. In NZ all one needs to do is lie to ACC and a cheque flows regardless of blameworthiness. The cheques are modest in value though.
Damn!
I guess on the same basis rate and taxpayers will also be expected to pay for the fencing of all roads, highways and byways to “protect” marauding toddlers as they roam wider environs.
Oh well, it’s all in a good cause – where’s my chequebook …
Cadwallader, I bow to your superior knowledge in this area. Here’s a radical idea. How about the police arresting someone for negligence causing the death of a child?
Absolutely! It won’t happen though as it may offend the natives, mara.
As a parent I know you can turn your head for a few seconds and lose track of a child. In this case the parents aren’t as much in fault as the town/county/council is. Especially since the parents (and probably the community) asked for a fence to be built.
In the US, if you own a pool you had better have a fence around it. Otherwise you are liable if a child drowns in it.
“In this case the parents aren’t as much in fault as the town/county/council is. ”
I utterly reject that line of thinking.
You know you can turn your head for a few seconds and lose sight of a child? So does any responsbile parent. What to say, then, about parents who leave toddlers unsupervised for ten minutes or more, except that they’re irresponsible assholes?
I don’t give a damn who asked for a fence to be built–that underlines what’s bloody wrong with the sheeple today. It’s impossible to fence all hazards and ultimately not desirable anyway. People aren’t supposed to be effing penned sheep and there is no substitute for parental responsibility. NONE!
It is possible to fence a river or even create a barrier that will keep a child safer. I know from experience that you can put a toddler down for a nap and find out that they’ve run outside. It is the responsibility of parents to keep your child safe, but accidents do happen.
In this case feel a little something for the parents. They’ve lost a child. That is something I pray you never have to go through.
“It is possible to fence a river or even create a barrier that will keep a child safer.”
Katie, even assuming that was desirable, do you have any conception at all of the massive costs involved? Costs which would have to be borne by people who take the trouble to keep an eye on their kid?
“I know from experience that you can put a toddler down for a nap and find out that they’ve run outside.”
And I know from experience that it’s possible–in fact easy–to put measures in place to make that impossible.
“In this case feel a little something for the parents. They’ve lost a child.”
All I feel for the parents is anger and disgust. They’ve killed (not “lost”) a child through their own carelessness and/or stupidity.
If I smacked my child to teach him discipline ,say for disobedience and going too close to a river bank or cliff edge that I had warned him not to,I would be on charges.
If I don’t keep an eye on my child while close to a dangerous environment and let them wander,resulting in death or serious injury, I have no criminal liability!
Thanks to all our brilliant politicians for passing laws intended to protect children….yeah right.
And talking of individual responsibility ,it pisses me off no end when some thicko runs over a child in ,invariably ,their own drive way and the wowsers want cameras ,etc to prevent that. It’s called due care and attention.
Sorry Katie, I disagree totally.The parents knew there was no fence and its lack clearly worried them; according to the article, anyway. So wouldn’t you think they would be extra cautious in that case?
I’m a parent too and would not have taken my eyes off kids that age in those circumstances.
Katie’s reasoning would mean a fence is required around the circumference of NZ, around every lake and along the entire riparian esplanade. Ridiculous!
This article is just further proof that the only freedom most kiwis want is freedom from responsibility. While I feel for the parents having lost a child, I also know from experience that losing sight of an adventurous toddler for even a minute causes something approaching panic in a parent. Losing them for 10-15 minutes? I can’t imagine circumstances that would result in a parent not knowing for that long where theirntoddler is. Especially given there was a known threat present!
Toddlers require continuous supervision and directions.
When children get a bit older they need to be encouraged to explore the world and test themselves against it, but even then parental advice and guidance is necessary. In recent years a book was published called “The Dangerous Book For Boys” which lists the activities and risks boys from 8 or so upwards should engage in. To curb natural curiosity and risks would be stifling and if all waterways etc were to be placed out of bounds for all children then their growth would suffer. Why should heedless and neglectful parents of toddlers spoil it all for everyone else through the fencing off of allegedly “dangerous” waterways?
Absolutely agree Cadwaller. When Miss Five was a toddler we were if anything a little paranoid about her. Now she’s a little older she is being encouraged to take some risks, in a somewhat controlled environment. As she gets older the controls will gradually be removed so she can test herself against the world.
The point of my comment was I can’t believe a parent not knowing where a toddler is for 15 minutes!
GG the parents’ neglect is utterly disgraceful.
The Herald’s tabloid style, front page “take” on this sad story does it no credit. What a surprise! I cynically wonder if this approach is pure commercialism or, more worryingly, does it reflect the distorted values of its editors who actually believe that a BAD council needs to be exposed.
Trick is- vigilance has to be proportional to the risk. They KNEW there was a hazard there, so should have been watching a lot closer than in, say, a playground enclosed in a childproof fence.
Let’s be honest here at last. The kid died because the family was stupid. They paid a heavy price for this, but the kid paid more.
I content that animals take better care of they’re young than modern humans in many cases.
Just look at the number of children who die of heat stroke here every summer because mom forgot them in a hot car while she was getting her hair done or shopping.
Lets hypothesise on the basis of observed behaviour:
Visit the rellies and start getting stuck into the bevvies. Which is the pretext for the action.
It’s a lower economic group member NZ thing.
“10 to 15 minutes”? Indeed.
Double those numbers and you get the time needed for the first two fast ones to hit the gut.
Forget the toddlers – they’re outside playing somewhere….
I am from NZ, actually Gisborne in fact and I know the area of where the toddler died far better than any of you wankers on this website. It is in fact a dangerous river and street, there are houses along that street that back onto the river without a back fence, if you actually read OUR articles you would read that the front gate was infact locked so the little ones wouldnt get out. But they were obviously alot smarter than they let on, to actually open the front gate and run off is saying something aye. And it wasnt 10 to 15 minutes before they realised they were gone it was 10 to 15 minutes before they found them you jerks. So get your shit straight before you start running us down as a country.
Well, now we know – they live on a dangerous street, there is a dangerous river and some of the houses don’t have a fence where they back onto a river. I must be missing something else………… personal responsibility maybe, because I know that if I lived there my children would be directly supervised by a responsible adult 100% of the time. Locked gates and fences do not keep children safe, as you probably well know, because kids just climb over them…….probably because they are a lot smarter (or less doped out) than the adults.
But as you live in the provinces I suppose that you are used to the government taking care of your every need and doing all your thinking for you. It is quite simple, parents who do not know where their toddler is every second of the day are negligent. Period.
“It is quite simple, parents who do not know where their toddler is every second of the day are negligent. Period.”
Absolutely.
All else is bullshit, excuses and spin.
Fuckwit parents deserve to be locked up.
I’m more concerned about the names of the kids compared to the names of the parents , relatives . I mean, Sukhraj Singh age 2 drowned and his mother Jamie Taewa and his uncle Hemi Jahnke are one lot , and seriously ill Archillies Kaui aged 3 is in hospital and his mother Diana McIntyre is the other party.Not one name of these family members stack up.
What the hell is going on down is Gisborne .
Yeah, that seems odd, George.
Without DNA tests, there is no certainty those surnames relate to the biological fathers. Chooks look after their chicks better than these useless, worthless untermenschen.
Interesting, that “proud NZer” assumes that we don’t know the area. Or NZ.
Why is it there’s never a shortage of idiots?
Why does SOMEONE ELSE have to build the fence? I just built one recently.
Well, probably at least in part because the effing council will put all kinds of obstacles in the way in the form of bureaucratic hoops to be jumped through. Councils aren’t good at doing stuff, but they’re experts at getting in the way of other people doing things.
Proud NZer has to be an idiot. If the Council fenced off the stream it would bugger-up access for those entitled to customary fishing rights.
The variety of ethnicities suggested by the divergent names almost (almost!!!) gives Gisborne a cosmopolitan air. (Mind you the other Gisborne I’ve been to, in VIC Australia is no less a knuckle-dragging haunt.)