tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4701963042587065088.post6579280314557305145..comments2023-12-07T00:45:49.609-08:00Comments on Garden Grants Pass: Unfinished work killed two girlsRycke Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09740985764499785564noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4701963042587065088.post-69788866353856422192014-01-04T06:53:20.261-08:002014-01-04T06:53:20.261-08:00You make some very valid points in your commentary...You make some very valid points in your commentary, virtually all of which I have personally experienced any time I lived in an area where deciduous trees drop their leaves every fall. <br />Your criticism is way too broad however, in my opinion. <br />I lived in the northeast and owned a full service landscape business there for more than 20 years covering the '80s and '90s.<br />Firstly, unless you own your own dump, in the majority of municipalities you are mandated to place cleaned up leaves in the street for pickup by the town with specific equipment solely for that purpose, and there are many benefits to this practice, both short and long term. However, with an army of landscape companies doing exactly that with the leaves they are removing, there never was, nor could there ever be, any expectation, and certainly any guarantee that these piled up leaves will be removed "immediately" as I believe you suggested. There is simply no way that could ever be practical.<br />Therefore, examine the several most egregious lapses in judgement, or some would say simple common sense in this tragedy.<br />The majority of the blame lies squarely with the father, and I am the father of what were once two young daughters who loved to do exactly what these poor girls were doing. The leaves were in the STREET for God's sake. Does this father let his girls play in traffic as well? This is purely a lack of very obvious common sense, find some leaves on the lawn for them to enjoy themselves in<br />Secondly, you had a very young, inexperienced driver, who apparently thought it would be fun to drive through the leaf pile. This is wrong on several levels, but mostly because of the potential for what sadly did happen to happen. When I taught my girls to drive, this was one of the numerous things that was an automatic no-no. Besides the potential for a tragedy like this to occur, they are very slippery as you point out, not good for the undercarriage of the vehicle, and akin to driving into water that you have no idea the depth of. It's just not smart, nothing good can happen.<br />so this is not the fault of the municipality, they pickup up a lot of leaves everday, but they cannot be everywhere at once, and leaves are going to sit for days or longer. Either we change the process of how these leaves are disposed of, and remember, we don't want our landfills full of millioms of plastic bags, or we expect that people will utilize common sense regarding this practice, and so many others that we encounter everyday of the year. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17938595690562353008noreply@blogger.com