Todd Heap. OMG how sad.

[pmedic920]

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/1916 ... ving-truck


I can't imagine the pain and horror he must feel.

 

[Lithium]

heart wrenching. geeze.

 

[nash72]

Just saw this. How awful. Prayers go out to him and the family.

 

[Josea16]

Sometimes life really sucks. And this is definitely one of those times

 

[Bobblehead]

Cannot be anything more heart breaking.

Damn,, you have kids. no, you never ever move your vehicle without seeing whats next to it first..this breaks my heart and pisses me off at the same time.. just no excuse.

 

[pmedic920]

Cannot be anything more heart breaking.

Damn,, you have kids. no, you never ever move your vehicle without seeing whats next to it first..this breaks my heart and pisses me off at the same time.. just no excuse.

You would be surprised how often this happens.
Here in the Houston area I'd be willing to bet at least 2-3 a year. Exact scenario.
Yes, in most cases it's very preventable but accidents happen.
Last one I had any first hand knowledge of, dude was leaving for work very early in the AM. His daughter shouldn't have even been awake yet but she was. He got in his truck to leave and his 4 y/o ran out to kiss him bye.
He was already in the truck when she ran out. He never saw her, never knew she was standing beside his door as he turned to back into the street. Front tire on driver side did the damage.
This fellow was a firefighter leaving his house at 5 AM.
Sure it was preventable in literal terms but not in a practical sense.

I would gladly lay down my life for my daughter, I can't even imagine what it would do to me if I was the cause of her death.

I get tears in my eyes thinking about it.


Edit: in my line of work we are taught to do a 360 around the unit before moving it especially when we've been on scene in a residential area, same for firefighters. Kids are attracted to the trucks. I do it almost religiously while on duty.
I almost never do it while driving one of my personal vehicles. Even this would not have prevented the case I mentioned above. The child ran out after he was in his truck.

 

[raisethe3]

So sad this happened.

 

[IndyHawk]

Cannot be anything more heart breaking.

Damn,, you have kids. no, you never ever move your vehicle without seeing whats next to it first..this breaks my heart and pisses me off at the same time.. just no excuse.

You would be surprised how often this happens.
Here in the Houston area I'd be willing to bet at least 2-3 a year. Exact scenario.
Yes, in most cases it's very preventable but accidents happen.
Last one I had any first hand knowledge of, dude was leaving for work very early in the AM. His daughter shouldn't have even been awake yet but she was. He got in his truck to leave and his 4 y/o ran out to kiss him bye.
He was already in the truck when she ran out. He never saw her, never knew she was standing beside his door as he turned to back into the street. Front tire on driver side did the damage.
This fellow was a firefighter leaving his house at 5 AM.
Sure it was preventable in literal terms but not in a practical sense.

I would gladly lay down my life for my daughter, I can't even imagine what it would do to me if I was the cause of her death.

I get tears in my eyes thinking about it.


Edit: in my line of work we are taught to do a 360 around the unit before moving it especially when we've been on scene in a residential area, same for firefighters. Kids are attracted to the trucks. I do it almost religiously while on duty.
I almost never do it while driving one of my personal vehicles. Even this would not have prevented the case I mentioned above. The child ran out after he was in his truck.

That 360 rule is in effect at my job and also you have to look under the trucks.I have a daughter and had a big pickup when she was a toddler,I never thought of that happening back in the day.She's a woman now and I have to believe I was lucky that accident did not happen because it happens to anyone anytime.I feel bad for the guy and we all know he's in a bad place right now.I hope he can find peace within himself

 

[Natethegreat]

I feel for him so much. Heart crushing blow. My wife just last night could have hit our 3 year old daughter who had gone outside and ran behind our van just as she was backing out.
Luckily our van has a back up camera and my wife saw her but the point is that its a tragedy that could happen to anyone. Heart breaking news and my prayers are with Heap and his whole family.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

So sad, wish him all the best through this tough time.

 

[Sports Hernia]

I can not imagine the personal hell he and his family are going thru. Extremely sad on so many levels.

 

[toffee]

Sometimes you just have to either accept or question why things move in such mysterious ways.


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[Jimjones0384]

Wow, how awful. I couldn't even imagine what this poor family is going through. They definitely need some positive energy, prayer, whatever you believe, sent their way.

 

[replicant]

I believe in a lot of these cases, one parent thinks the other parent is watching the small child and vice versa.
Very tragic for this whole family, but making this story widely available is going to prevent at least one similar accident if not many. Parents are going to be more vigilant.

 

[RiverDog]

This story sent shivers up my spine. One summer our grandsons were visiting us for a couple weeks. My wife bought both bicycles, and on their maiden voyage on them, one of them ran a stop sign and got hit by a car, hurling our 9 year old grandson well over the height of the vehicle. Fortunately he ended up with just some scrapes and bruises, but it was damn scary when the sheriff pulled up at our house and just one of the boys got out of the squad car. My wife has also had to endure the death of her only child.

Losing one of your kids has to be the most traumatic experience imaginable. Kids are supposed to bury their parents, not the other way around.

 

[ivotuk]

I used to have nightmares about this. I had a lifted truck with 42" TSL Super Swampers, and I did a walk around before I would get in to drive off.

My biggest problem these days, and I see it all the time, is people walk out of the house, and as they're sliding in to the driver's seat, out comes the cell phone.

For some unGodly reason, they couldn't have made that call before they got in a 4000 pound iron death machine, or after they got out of it. I don't understand the need to be on the cell phone while driving What's the draw? "Look at me. I'm important"? :34853_doh:

I remember a video of Russell Wilson driving a van in California with his team mates in it, and he's on the phone. Something happened, and Sidney Rice asked him to hang it up "You have some very valuable people in here."

I'm sure Sidney sees everyone as valuable, but I imagine he was trying to get a point across. We don't need to lose a quarter of our team because someone feels there is no other time they can be on the phone except when they're behind the wheel.

 

[penihawk]

Not sure a bunch of guys on a football forum judging your parenting skills and speculating on what led to a tragic accident is appropriate. My prayers go out to Todd Heap and his family. End of story!

 

[Hawk Finn]

Not sure a bunch of guys on a football forum judging your parenting skills and speculating on what led to a tragic accident is appropriate. My prayers go out to Todd Heap and his family. End of story!

:ditto:

 

[flmmkrz]

This is heartbreaking stuff. I feel for the guy, how do you live with it. I couldn't imagine. Just a tragic accident.

 

[ivotuk]

People expressing their thoughts and feelings on a subject is always appropriate. Some may be wrong, some may be way off base, and some may be spot on, but that's the point of a forum, discussion and trying to navigate one's way to the truth of the matter.

I would not want to be in his shoes, and I feel bad for the guy. I think the only thing good that can come from this is for other drivers, not just parents, to increase their vigilance in order to limit the possibility of tragedy repeating itself.

I have no idea how it happened, but I've seen enough distracted driving killing people that it's almost epidemic proportions. But there are other reasons for car crashes, plenty of blame to go around.

"In 2010, there were an estimated 5,419,000 crashes (30,296 fatal crashes), killing 32,999 and injuring 2,239,000."

2.2 Million people injured. 30,000 dead.

What's the answer? Self-driving cars. I'm afraid that the current trend of "warning people when they are drifting, or self-braking cars" is only going to increase people's excuse's for being distracted. "My car will take care of it."

I pray that Todd and his family eventually find peace, and maybe work on something that can help prevent this kind of stuff in the future.

I feel fortunate that I haven't hurt anyone while I was driving. Lord knows I've done plenty of stupid stuff when I was younger. "There but for the Grace of God, go I."