• Sweden edition

Breastfeeding mum in Swedish car wreck

Published: 12 Jan 12 09:00 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/38458/20120112/

A woman who was breastfeeding her weeks-old infant while behind the wheel is under criminal suspicion after crashing into a truck on a motorway in western Sweden.

The 30-year-old woman was travelling along the E20 motorway outside of Skara in western Sweden last Wednesday with her three children when the accident occurred.

While two of her children were strapped in car seats in the back, the woman's was attempted to breast feed her weeks-old infant when she rammed into the back of a tanker truck.

“The child she was nursing was three weeks old. She didn't see that the truck was braking, so she drove into it,” Jerry Nyberg with the Lidköping police told Sveriges Radio (SR) following the incident.

The crash triggered the cars airbags and left the vehicle severely damaged, according to the police report from the accident.

While no one was seriously injured, the woman and her three children were all taken to hospital in Skövde where the mother and one of the children are still in care.

On Wednesday, officers from the traffic crime investigation team of the Lidköping police decided they will formally notify the mother that she is suspected of a crime.

“But we will have to wait until she is out of hospital again,” said an investigator to Expressen.

The mother has yet to be formally interviewed about the case, so the exact cause of the crash is yet to be confirmed. However, she did admit to police she was breastfeeding her infant at the time of the crash.

The Local/og (news@thelocal.se)

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10:42 January 12, 2012 by EtoileBrilliant
For a country that considers driving when texting perfectly normal, I doubt the police will bat an eyelid.
10:43 January 12, 2012 by Douglas Garner
Sounds like reckless driving and child endangerment to me!
10:49 January 12, 2012 by blursd
Well, I guess this is one thing Saudi Arabia has going for it ...

Honestly, who breastfeeds an infant whilst driving ...?
10:59 January 12, 2012 by Tennin
I'm so shocked at how dumb this lady is to breast feed while driving. I feel sorry for her children.
11:32 January 12, 2012 by Old Trafford
I guess the police must have heard of multi-tasking
11:33 January 12, 2012 by hunnysnowbee
Bloody idiot! She is lucky she didn't crush the poor baby to death between herself and the steering wheel. The sensible thing would have been to pull over some where to feed her baby. How is it even possible to drive and breast feed at the same time anyway? You need both hands to hold and position baby and get them to latch on, so I'd guess at some points she would have been driving with no hands, and at best driving one handed. Plus she would not have had her eyes on the road for half of the time as they would have been on the baby. I agree with Douglas Garner...sounds like reckless driving and child endagerment...not to mention endagering other road users, as she clearly wasn't fully concentrating on her driving! Poor kids...as you'd have to have a slightly low IQ to even think of taking such a huge risk. Baby being out of their car seat is intself a risk and breaking the law!
12:14 January 12, 2012 by Challie70
She needs jail time for this and child protection services to take a close look at her parenting skills. At least that is what it is called in the USA. The air bags deployed...so the air bag in front of her deployed and managed not to severly hurt the infant?!! Someone is watching over that baby!
12:52 January 12, 2012 by lewni
not very PC pic to put up there !!!
13:23 January 12, 2012 by caradoc
Was the tanker carrying milk?
13:36 January 12, 2012 by Mb 65
I saw a women spoon feeding her baby with both hands off the wheel in the front passenger seat fitted with a child seat on the E6 motorway at 90km.
14:17 January 12, 2012 by gabeltoon
COMMON SENSE GONE MAD. What was this mother thinking ?? Why didn't she make sure the baby and other children were fed before starting her journey.
14:39 January 12, 2012 by this_aint_sparta
Anyone not having three kids and one of them a 3 weeks old has the right to comment on this. Coz then you dont know what you are talking about.
16:43 January 12, 2012 by mikewhite
Yes, she needed a handsfree kit powered from the car cigarette lighter, tube from the pump going into the back of the car. Does anyone produce one of these ?
18:01 January 12, 2012 by hunnysnowbee
I have 3 kids, youngest who is actually 3 weeks old and is breastfed. I would never dream of having her out of the car seat while in the car, let alone breast feed her whilst driving. I would rather pull over some where safe to feed her and be late than risk either of my childrens lives, or that of other road users!

What this woman did was insane and damn well bloody stupid, and I agree with a previous poster, that some one must have been watching over that baby!
18:24 January 12, 2012 by JulieLou40
What a moron of the highest order.
20:03 January 12, 2012 by krattan
What this article fails to mention is that there were traffic jams when it happened. So the woman wasn't exactly speeding and feeding. More probable she was stuck in traffic queues with a screaming baby. Not easy to just pull over then.
05:57 January 13, 2012 by Da Goat
I was hoping for a Darwin award here somewhere she does deserve one with that track record!
20:49 January 20, 2012 by sendia
@ this aint sparta.

She should have thought well before having three kids, having three kids which means having a lot to do does not justify this act.
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