Chinese toddler dies after parking space row.

A Chinese toddler has died in a Beijing hospital after being wounded during a row between her mother and a man over a parking space, state media report.

They say the two-year-old girl suffered critical injuries on Tuesday when the man pulled her out of her pram and threw her to the ground.

www.bbc.co.uk...


I weep sometimes at the state of some peoples minds, this guy killed a toddler over a parking space.
Can't say much more but RIP little one and my thoughts go out to the mother and her family.
I hope the guy gets all he deserves.

I can't begin to describe just how horrible this is...

Perhaps it is better i say nothing, and extend my condolences out to the little one's family.

R.I.P

That man should rot in prison.

Originally posted by boymonkey74
... this guy killed a toddler over a parking space.

Well, in a fashion perhaps. The examples of road rage I've noted rarely warrant the resulting action though. Was this solely motivated in frustration over a parking space? So absurd does it seem that I have difficulty in believing this and in fact most instances of road rage aren't symptoms of some far deeper and unaddressed, perhaps even unrealised, frustration. Accepting such incidents in such simplistic terms seems dangerously dismissive to me and I think a very unhealthy path for society.

In a calmer mood how many would consider that few seconds so important that they'll happily race across a level crossing or past a school access. How many tailgate and further to that even (totally absurd when considered) stop the vehicle and so actually extend their trip time simply to protest about how long it might take because someone is driving too slow?

It just makes no sense and even while we may not be the most logical of creatures there appears to be such an absurdity here that it feels appropriate to look elsewhere for the root cause. Regarding road rage it seems to me that somewhere there is a (shared, so widespread is the symptom) source of stress in modern life which needs addressing directly, not simple venting whenever the pressure reaches dangerous levels. That way only lies fruitless, even tragic repetition.

We had to stop casually labelling people 'cowards' in WWI before we could discover the root cause of such actions and move toward a genuine understanding allowing for a solution to be sought.

Perhaps it might not be a valid concern here but I wonder if the chap really is the kind of man who in his general going about life would go about hurling the children of random strangers around simply to get his own way. If that were the case surely he'd have caught the attention of someone before now.

This is a * tragedy and of course I don't mean to dismiss that but a consideration of the people leads to consideration of the event which leads to a consideration of the ideas/cause behind it. There seems something wrong with the whole situation. More than 'some people are gits'.

reply to post by JAK


I couldnt agree more with this assessment JAK. It seems to me that whatever events lead up to the death of this child, the cause cannot have been mere road rage. Road rage only describes the context of an incident in the most brief terms. However, to correctly identify the root cause of the violence inflicted on the child by the man in question, one would perhaps need to look more closely at things that happened weeks, months, and probably years before hand, in the life of the killer. One does not, after a relatively uncomplicated life, absent serious psychological trauma of one sort or another, loose ones grip entirely, and throw children to the ground with such force as to cause thier death.

It seems to me that the rage this man summoned in order to override his morality throroughly enough to commit this act, was installed in him for some time before actually comming out in this vile manner. Maybe he was slapped around as a child, sexually abused, by a parent, sibling, or relative. Perhaps he was victimised by his peers at school in a serious way. Perhaps he had been poorly treated by a spouse. One thing I would say however, is that it is unlikely that this man is a psychopath. Psychopathy is actually a fairly distinct sickness, one with which sufferers are born, rather than something which develops as a symptom of trauma, aside from in cases where the brain has suffered an injury to the pre-frontal lobe. This seems to be garden variety insanity, rather than genuine dyed in the wool psychopathic behavior.

Either way, a bloody tragic end for one so young, and it must have been devastating for the mother to be there in that moment. She will re-live that moment every day for the rest of her life in all probability, torturing herself with the idea that she should have stopped it from happening, even though no one could have predicted that someone would be so full of rage as to harm a defenseless child in this way.

May the fallen rest in peace. At least the child never grew old enough to sin .

So yesterday I was returning to work from a bank run. This little old hispanic couple are struggling down the curb and across the street (small town....no one uses crosswalks). A lady in a red truck decides to stop and tell them to go. They, being old and with failing sight, were not sure she was waving them on. So it took a couple of seconds for them to start across.

Once they started, it took a little longer because the wife is a little slower, and she really struggled into the street. I watched this old couple with great admiration. They obviously loved each other, and looked to have been together for quite some time. The relationship I have with my wife....seeing those things makes me all fuzzy.

Then I glance back and the lady in the truck. She is literally losing it. Going nuts. You can see she is screaming at them, "JESUS CHRIST, WILL YOU JUST GO??? GO!!!! COME ON!!!!! MOOOOOOOVVVVVEEE!!!!"

So i walk in front of the truck, between her and the old couple. I walk just slightly slower, making her have to wait a couple of seconds longer. And I stare her down while I do it.

She stopped yelling, but you could see she was even more pissed. Good. Sorry ass. Those folks were moving as fast as they could, and only did so after she invited them to cross in front of her.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Good you Tex, I would have done the same thing.
Some people just lose it over the smallest thing. Where have peoples manners gone?.

reply to post by JAK

Regarding road rage it seems to me that somewhere there is a (shared, so widespread is the symptom) source of stress in modern life which needs addressing directly, not simple venting whenever the pressure reaches dangerous levels. That way only lies fruitless, even tragic repetition.

Undoubtedly there are emotional issues involved, but I think a large part of it has to do with some sort of neurological change that overtakes people (at least some people) when they get behind the wheel of a car. Driving a car is a largely unconscious activity; it involves a lot of instinctive reaction and conditioned, more-or-less-automatic response. Perhaps this activates instincts and reflexes, originally evolved for other purposes, which can override our empathetic and rational functions.

More controversially, I would suggest that the car itself has something to do with it. In effect, a car and driver are a single, unified system. You can think of a car as a machine with a brain, or alternatively as a body for the brain inside it. The nature of the sensory feedback and motor demands the 'body' part of this interactive brain/body system (i.e. the car) makes on the 'brain' part (i.e the driver) may be such that it makes the brain function in a different way from when it is housed only in its customary vessel of flesh and blood.

As someone who has been both a victim and, I am ashamed to say, an occasional perpetrator of road-rage-type incidents, I can testify that they make no rational sense whatsoever and are deeply humiliating to all parties concerned, even when no damage or injury occurs.

reply to post by Astyanax


I think that it is worth saying that by no means do all drivers present with road rage symptoms at some point. Clearly there is a difference between being justly aggravated at the idiocy of the person who just crossed three lanes of traffic without signalling an intent to do so, before breaking too sharply before turning off at thier junction, causing any cars behind thier own to have to follow suit and take potentially dangerous evasive action, and just loosing it because someone overtook you up the inside, once, by accident.

Frankly speaking the propensity toward anger on the roads cannot be explained simply by the function of the car, and the demands it makes on the driver. No manner of rage can be explained away in such simple terms, or with so shallow an examination of the psyche. Most people just arent given to that manner of behavior, and certainly not unless they have something in thier pasts which might allow for it.

reply to post by TrueBrit

I see you have a Freudian outlook – childhood trauma leading to adult complexes, or 'behavioural issues' in today's parlance. Psychology has moved on a bit since Freud's time. But what you are really saying is that different people respond differently in a given situation. There's no arguing with that.

Unfortunately, you seem to have somewhat missed my point, which is that our personality and behaviour can be altered by the environment with which we interact. Are you disputing this?

reply to post by Astyanax


No indeed, of course I would not suggest that environmental factors cannot affect a persons psyche. Lets face it, one would have to be a clod to think such a thing.

However, what I am saying is that to have an extreme reaction to something, one must, wether at childhood or later, have had an incident or an event which causes them to react to relatively normal stimuli in an abnormal fashion. Since it is clearly the case that it is not normal to react violently to the mere fact of being in a car, on the road, one must also assume that those who have seriously outrageous reactions to it have had unusual and extreme expiriences at some point, wether in childhood or adulthood (since deep trauma can occur at any time if the stimulus is strong enough).

reply to post by Astyanax


I agree with the suggestion that getting behind the wheel can load a particular mindset so to speak and I found it quite interesting when recently out in the heat to note not a single car had it's windows open, every one was a climate controlled personal environment but even with those considerations...

I wonder if people who frequently become excessively agitated whilst driving would feel the same frustration over similar incidents played out on a simulator. I know there can be offered the argument that the scenario would render such a comparison worthless but perhaps there's a question there. Would it be simply because the other drivers aren't real and so there is no personal affront, no damaged ego which demands satisfaction through the desire to prove the individual's importance/power. Perhaps not even that though - perhaps not the demand to exemplify a particular, impressive level of importance. Yet how is attacking a lady/child proof of worth to a grown man? Perhaps then it is merely demanding of recognition that they actually have some value in this world. Recognition that they exist, that they are worthy of notice in a world which in everyday life cares more for your number than your name.

*Shrugs*

reply to post by JAK

I wonder if people who frequently become excessively agitated whilst driving would feel the same frustration over similar incidents played out on a simulator.

They might. We've all seen people express anger and frustration with machines and appliances, even to the point of physically attacking them.

I don't think drivers respond to other drivers, but to other vehicles. Of course they're aware that the vehicle contains a driver, and that said driver is responsible for the vehicle's movements. However, the conceptual entity with which one interacts is not a human being with arms and legs, but a machine with four wheels – and a human brain. Not, then, a strictly human entity. This is the point I was trying to make earlier. I think it is important.

reply to post by Astyanax


It seems a valid one too. Particularly when recalling the commentary of WWII pilots who have frequently spoken of focusing entirely on the aircraft when in combat, on the machine without any thought of the pilot until there came time to note the occupant whereupon compassion was shown through acts such as not shooting at parachutes etc. A similarity initially then although perhaps a difference in the latter part. This is not to say that all pilots displayed such chivalrous courtesy of course but I have heard such first hand commentary enough to suggest it an interesting point for consideration.

Though I am still left thinking there is a personal aspect to this, a perceived personal affront (rather than anger over any real danger caused by reckless driving) which drives or perhaps encourages the anger. The stories we read about frequently escalate to personal confrontation. As said though, in contemplating the path taken to reach that outcome you offer an interesting point which warrants reflection and which I'd not considered from that perspective before. Thank you.

I once moved to Los Angeles, where due to my home, job and school, involved spending about 4.5 hours a day on the highway. (In great part the 405, which I called "the 4 o' 5 miles an hour.")

Traffic was so crazy that literally a 3 minute difference in when I left for work would either result in my being 12 minutes early or 20 minutes late. I could have rode a bicycle faster than driven, except (a) the distance and (b) no place to do so.

I had a manual transmission, and the traffic required a constant move back and forth between gears 1 and 2.

The highway was filled with people who would, apparently, happily injure or kill you in their great desire to get approximately 1.2 seconds ahead of where they were.

It was during this time I understood why you cannot carry a gun in your car. I quite seriously wanted to KILL other drivers sometimes, and by the way I disagree that we perceive it as only vehicles, because I had no desire to crash the car, I had the desire to kill the driver.

After some time of this, I would be screaming my head off with extensive epithets, slamming my hands on the steering wheel and sometimes horn, and genuinely wishing death and destruction on the drivers of cars who, as usual, nearly caused a major accident involving me.

One day I snapped. I mean I literally lost my mind. I was getting more and more upset, I was very sleep deprived and stressed out and malnutritioned during that era on top of everything else, and I started screaming -- and I just didn't stop. I mean I wasn't screaming words, I was just *screaming* over and over again. And then I started laughing -- maniacally. Then I screamed again for awhile. Then I laughed again for awhile.

And it was over. From that time on, I was completely calm in traffic. Even under the worst circumstance.

This probably saved my life a couple of times later, in high speed traffic elsewhere, when my incredibly calm, instant reaction to something saved me. I seriously wondered if this was a sort of survival instinct, and maybe the reason why soldiers start out as horrifically traumatized young men and often end up completely cold. (Like that soldier running ammo in 'Saving Private Ryan.') Like the body/mind can only take so much trauma before you just completely freak-the-f--k out and snap. But once you snap, you suddenly have vastly less (if any) emotion about it.

My theory is the body recognizes that the emotion is the primary damaging element eventually, and protects us.

PS: about the lunatic who killed the child:

I had a health period where I was very low on oxygen. This can be caused by sleep apnea and many other things actually. In particular it affects the heart (although it affects the whole body to varying degrees).

One of the most notable symptoms is "instant rage." By rage I mean the full meaning of the word, basically just this side of berserker.

When I resolved the oxygen issue that went away. Sometimes when I'd get that way again, I could feel it in my chest -- and observe it in my behavior.

Since then I have seen this behavior in many people, commonly older men, and I recognize it; I can't explain logically how I can say I know the cause when I don't know them, they don't have it written on their forehead after all, and perhaps they are just a man who was perfectly normal a moment ago and suddenly is like the worst enemy in a combat zone, insane with violent rage. But, irrationally, I believe that I am seeing a health issue that affect the heart.

So perhaps that is part of certain behaviors like this that we fail to recognize. I said and did things in that period, in that state of instant-rage, that I would never have done before or after that. It is literally as if the body is perceiving, suddenly, this massive threat to its own survival, and anything in focus becomes the 'target' -- the perceived threat.

I just stumbled on this (there are a LOT of threads here for this "newbie" to look at! WOOHOO!) and I have to say that I experienced my first incident of "road rage" yesterday while out driving (I'm thirty-seven and just recently acquired my learner's permit to drive which, due to my health issues of Cerebral Palsy - thankfully, it's very mild - and Hydrocephalus, I never thought I would get because I'm also legally blind in my left eye.

Anyway, I was driving to town with Mom yesterday and was about to make a turn onto another road. I was going at just the right speed and I stopped and this idiot behind me blew his horn at me after I turned off onto the road where I was going - and he did this for no apparent reason! Mom was so angry that, if she could have, she was gonna get out of the car and beat the daylights out of this guy.

Where has the world's common sense gone to???