The son looks old enough to open the car door. Maybe he was alredy dead from rolling down the embakement? Mom should have know better. You have to go for the child first unless you know he is dead.

Sad.

Family photo

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/artic...

'I just had to accept the fact that he had gone.
'Instead of going down and risking my life as well as my wife and son's, I chose to take Vanessa back and sat on the shore praying. It was all I could do.'
Silva's friend and the family dog, who had also been in the car, had managed to scramble to safety by the time Mr Horton arrived at the scene, two minutes after the car had entered the Whanganui River, north of Wellington, New Zealand.

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After Mr Horton had made his heartbreaking decision to drag his wife to safety, police and firefighters, summoned by passers-by, dived into the murky water to try to free Silva. However, by then, even reaching the vehicle proved impossible in the darkness.

'We tried everything but to no avail,' said senior fire officer Gary Wilson. 'It was a long shot but it was worth the risk to try and save him.'
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'It's just a freak accident. We can't blame anyone. I've forgiven the kids who were wrecking our letterbox.'
'I love those kids and I know how they will be feeling,' said Mrs Horton. 'I don't hold them responsible.'


The couple said Silva's funeral on Thursday would be a celebration of his life and they planned to release 13 balloons, one for each year they spent with him.

personally, i would not exit a burning building without all my spawn safely accounted for…same goes for a sinking car.

While that's a noble sentiment, it's also absolutely absurd. If a parent has a reasonable expectation of saving the child/children, that would be one thing. But to suggest you'd waste your life in a vain attempt to save someone you know you can't possibly save? Well, I suppose if that's how you want to spend it, that's your choice.

i hardly think there was any choice by anyone to 'let' the kid drown. geez. maybe i read wrong but dont think anyone here is saying that.

it was a freak accident with a horrible ending. shit happens.

personally, i would not exit a burning building without all my spawn safely accounted for...same goes for a sinking car.

Am I the only one that noticed he did try to save the kid first, he couldn’t get to the car.

No. That's why grousing about how he made some kind of deliberate choice to let the kid drown is absurd.

Am I the only one that noticed he did try to save the kid first, he couldn't get to the car. It lose both or one, not one or the other. It's a sad situation. mom was in the wrong but if she couldn't swim panic would be panic, not a lack of forethought for her son. Ultimately the chase should never have happened but I still feel bad for them. Especially for the dad, he might have been trying to stop the Mother and son from doing something stupid, who knows.

My former hubby and I agreed upon one thing from the start. If either one of us was ever faced with such a choice, the kid wins, hands down. However, life surely doesnt go as planned, does it?

He didn't sit down and determine to "make a choice" between one or the other as such; he was trying to save both. It's just sad.

It would be terrible to have to make such a choice.

However, the father should have helped the person that his aid would most likely change that person's prognosis from dying to living. No sense trying to help someone who would live (or die) anyways. Without seeing the situation firsthand, we can't really tell who he could have helped more. So I'm not going to second guess his choice.

Rational thought aside, Damn! -- The twit who risks two lives over a $30 mailbox lives, yet the kid who probably had no say about whether or not to pursue, he gets the big sleep.

Not everyone is a strong swimmer, and it requires a great deal of strength to dive down into a river, against a current, to chase after a car that is sinking quickly. I doubt I could have done it. Whanganui River is NZ's 3 largest, so this isn't some neighborhood creek we're talking about here. While it is terribly unfortunate, 1 dead person makes more sense than 3 dead people.

As a mother, I can say there is ZERO chance that my husband would have found me at the surface while my kid was still in the car. Period. I would die 100 deaths before I would leave my kid behind. But - just supposing that somehow it happened - maybe I was thrown out of the car or something... I would be screaming at my husband to save the kid.

I hate to judge, but this woman does not sound as if her priorities were focused on her kid. As others have mentioned, even letting him in the car if she was doing something as foolish as chasing punk vandals was pretty good indication of her lack of good sense.

Anyway, it is what it is. It was a horrible accident. I hope that this family can survive this tragedy, but somehow I doubt that is likely.

I would have gone after the boy first. He was clearly in greater danger, maybe the wife could have thrashed her way to the shore. What, she couldn't swim?

Why didn't she just call the police? Who jumps in a car with their kids and gives chase to vandals? Poor kid.

How utterly terrifying. Having to choose...

SOrry to rip on the family... but you DON'T take your son on a high speed chase with you. Now she's paying for it... in spades.

No disrespect to the family but really? All this over a mailbox? And why take your son with you? If I’m gonna kick ass I perfer to go solo.

I feel awful for this family, and I can't imagine what it would feel like to have to make a choice like that, but two things:

a) the wife is an idiot for taking her son along on a car chase that was ill-advised to begin with
b) The story fails to really explain why the guy decided to save his wife. "She was drowning" isn't a reason, since obviously his son was drowning, too. I hesitate to judge but for some reason this just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it's because the whole thing is the wife's fault to begin with, though she is clearly being punished more than she deserves now.

Nellymed, you hit the nail right on the head, a high speed pursuit is no place to take a child, regardless of age. So tragic, my heart breaks for this man

I would hate to make that choice, but my son is my priority, I would choose him first every time. I agree with Nellymed...over a mailbox?!

No disrespect to the family but really? All this over a mailbox? And why take your son with you? If I'm gonna kick ass I perfer to go solo.

This is a horrifying situation... how scary and tragic.