One of my worst nightmares involves the idea of driving on the freeway in a reasonable and prmudent manner, only to have a pedestrian suddenly appear in front of me. I've hit a couple of deer before, and that is an unpleasant experience, but deer are animals, and what can you do? If they dash out, you can try to stop, but often they are in small herds, and it is very difficult to avoid hitting all of them. Fortunately, it is illegal for pedestrians to be on freeways, and there exists a legal presumption (which we have a right to make) that other people will obey the law.

But "people" includes children, and even babies. I remember one time in Berkeley when I started my car (which was parked on a public street), I thought I noticed a small moving shape in the side view mirror, just behind my car. I got out and looked and sure enough, a baby in plastic pants had crawled onto the street just behind my rear wheels. There were no adults anywhere in sight. Fortunately, I didn't back up, or the baby would have been squashed. Some young girls were playing on the sidewalk (in front of a multi-unit building), and I asked them (angrily) if they knew where the mother was. They shook their heads and said no, and I just drove away. It sounds callused, and today I would make more of a scene, but I was younger, in a hurry, had at least alerted people, and considered myself lucky to have avoided an accident. Was it my duty to have a confrontation by searching for an irresponsible mother who for all I knew might have been high on crack in one of the apartments with angry men who might have assaulted me? Personally, I think moms who allow unsupervised babies to crawl into the street should have their babies taken away, but that is not the way the system works.

Bad as that was, at least it was a residential street, where pedestrians -- including infants in plastic pants -- can be expected. I had fits of paranoia later, and I have never forgotten the experience. On another occasion, a tiny boy dashed in front of my car when I was driving on Haight Street in San Francisco, and I had to slam on the brakes, missing him by inches. My passenger hit the frame of the windshield hard enough that it raised a bump on his head, and we both yelled at the kid, who was no more than six and who just stared and looked afraid before running off. Do you think there was a parent anywhere in sight? No. Once again, I did nothing but drive away and consider myself lucky. How involved should you get in these situations? Does driving carries with it a duty to stop everything you're doing and get into making police reports about kids who run off and bad parents who are nowhere around? (Police, BTW, do not enjoy wasting their time even on real auto accidents, and they are not interested in accidents that didn't happen with people who are not there.)

Anyway, I have had two close calls. You can't be too careful. The fear of hitting pedestrians on residential streets is rational. And while I'd like to think that my fear of hitting pedestrians on freeways is irrational, what's to stop the type of people who let kids dash onto residential streets from letting them dash onto freeways? Nothing. All I have is my legal right to assume people will be reasonable and obey the law. But having this "right" to drive on the highway and not have pedestrians suddenly appear in front of me does not make my fear go away, because the real world is not populated by reasonable prudent people.

The real world includes so many unreasonable, imprudent people that I'm not sure that there's a right to assume anything anymore. Seriously, if recent news is any indication, I now have to worry about flying babies on the freeway. Ejected from vehicles crashed by mothers not even licensed to drive:

The woman who was at the wheel of a minivan involved in a tragic double fatal accident Wednesday morning on the Ohio Turnpike does not have a valid license. In fact, Fox 8 News has discovered that it appears Setita Patrick has never had a license.

Investigators believe she fell asleep behind the wheel.

Two of Patrick's children were killed and a third child -- an infant -- was seriously injured during the crash in Lorain County.

The accident, which initially involved two vehicles, occurred at approximately 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.

An Ohio Highway Patrol spokesperson tells Fox 8 News that a Kia minivan driven by Patrick, 29, of Detroit, was traveling eastbound in the right lane of the Turnpike. In the vehicle's passenger seat was 37-year-old Jerome Thomas. The three siblings -- Alexia Patrick, 10; Jamel El-Amin, 5; and 5-month-old Kevin Green Jr. -- were in the back.

"It was devastating to me, I really didn't know how to react from it," said Patrick's uncle, Derrick Gavins. "They were great, they were fun-loving, energetic, active."

All occupants of the minivan are from Detroit, Michigan.

The minivan sideswiped a PT Cruiser that was traveling eastbound in the middle lane. The driver of the PT Cruiser, Jose Arzuaga, 58, of Lorain, told authorities that he never saw the minivan until it hit his vehicle.

After striking the PT Cruiser, the minivan rolled several times before crashing into the concrete median barrier.

Alexia Patrick and El-Amin -- both of whom were not wearing seat belts -- were thrown into the westbound lanes of traffic. They were already dead when rescue crews arrived at the scene.

Once thrown from the minivan, Alexia Patrick was struck by a commercial semi. That vehicle has not yet been located, but authorities are searching for it.

"That driver may not have even known that he struck the child," said Lt. John Maxey with the State Highway Patrol.

The deaths of these innocent children is of course a horrible tragedy. But imagine being the driver of that truck. No matter how carefully he was driving, no matter how perfect a record he has, he could face hit and run charges, and for the rest of his life he will have to live with the knowledge that he squashed small children to death who were suddenly transformed into flying objects through no fault of their own.

I can't believe the way they're talking about seat belts as the issue. Considering that this was a totally illegal driver, it makes about as much sense as criticizing a felon whose illegal gun went off during a robbery for ignoring firearm safety rules. I'm fascinated by how someone who has never had a drivers license managed to have it suspended 12 times. I guess they call that getting tough. Anyway, as a police spokesman explains, they're trying to avoid passing judgment:

According to the Michigan Secretary of State, Setita Patrick has had her driving privileges suspended 12 times since January 2001 for traffic violations, as well as her failure to obtain a driver's license, insurance and registration.

[...]

According to the SOS, it is technically possible to never have a driver's license and yet still receive a license suspension.

"Whenever a person without a license receives a citation, that information comes here, and they are issued a driver's license number, which is used as a tracking device," said Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for the SOS. "If the person keeps receiving citations, has too many points or doesn't pay their citations, the system will automatically issue a suspension of the license, even though they don't really have a license."

According to Woodhams, the "suspended" driver would have to pay off their tickets/fees and be free of suspensions before they could then apply for a valid license.

"That's what happened in this case," Woodhams said. "In January 2009, Patrick applied for a valid driver's license. She was denied."

According to the SOS, Patrick has two points on her driving record.

[...]

"It was a tragic, tragic event," said Lt. John Maxey, who was at the scene of the crash. "Anytime you have your seat belt on, your chances of surviving a serious crash are doubled. Obviously, we would encourage anyone to put their seat belt on before they leave. Once the crash starts, it's too late to go back and secure your seatbelt."

Maxey said the children probably would have survived the crash if they had been secured in child restraint seats.

"No one wants to pass judgment, but if the children had been secured, their injuries would have been greatly diminished because there wasn't a lot of intrusion into the minivan," Maxey said. "Hopefully, others can learn from this situation."

If the lawyers can find a deep pocket, this case is worth millions of dollars -- with 30-40% going to ther lawyers, of course.

It is an unconscionable system, and I speak as a lawyer who used to practice personal injury law. I get a little tired of hearing about rich doctors and big pharmaceutical companies when the trial lawyers are some of the richest people in the country -- much of their wealth being little more than ill-gotten gain.

Hey, as an aside, if we're going to socialize medicine, why not socialize the trial lawyer industry? Limit their fees, and make them all work for the government! You want a trial lawyer, get in line, fill out a form, and wait. No more exorbitant fees, no more annoying billboard and bus ads, and since all the money comes into and goes out the same government pool, naturally, awards will have to be limited to what the government can afford to pay. More fair that way.

Sorry, I got off track there. Socializing the trial lawyers is a whole different subject, and I shouldn't have injected it into a blog post about flying babies and unlicensed drivers and responsibility and stuff.

You'd think that as a lawyer myself, I would have learned to never pass judgment.

I promise to try to be more careful.