SURVENT

WTF?!?

This story is just bizarre. I am curious how people decide to do some of the things they do and why. In Stony Point, New York last Friday a woman committed suicide by driving her minivan off a cliff - with her two daughters inside! I read the first paragraph of the article and was confused as to why the husband was being charged with anything in this case. Was he supposed to kill himself by not moving from in front of the minivan? Here is the opening paragraph:

A man was arraigned Friday on charges that he helped his wife commit suicide by stepping aside as she drove the family minivan down a 300-foot cliff with their two daughters inside.

But then as I read on I was astonished by the fact that the husband, identified as Victor Han, actually got out of the minivan knowing what she was going to do. Then I got pissed at the fact the he left his two daughters inside to probably die with their mother.

Police said the family had stopped at a scenic overlook in the state park about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Han got out of the minivan, and his wife "put the vehicle in drive and locked the doors," park police Col. James Warwick said Friday.

The vehicle then rolled over the cliff, tumbling down the mountainside into the trees and rocks below, police said. The couple's 3- and 5-year-old daughters suffered minor injuries, police said.

Thankfully the girls survived the descent - I guess minivans are pretty safe nowadays, but I am still surprised. I do not understand how parents could do something like this to their children. At the ages of 3 and 5, these kids are totally at the mercy of their parents and things like this should not happen.

What infuriates me even more is the fact that the father is only being charged with promoting a suicide attempt and reckless endangerment, both felonies, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. Where are the charges for attempted murder of being an accomplice to an attempted murder? He allowed his daughters to go over the cliff with their mother.....he should be charged for that. And of course when the neighbors of the family were questioned, they gave the common response you get when something crazy like this happens: "They're a fabulous family," said Kim Barbagallo, who lives across the street. "They were always together as a family," she said. No one usually says that the people were freaks and they saw something like this coming. It's always the people you would least suspect. My question is, what can we do as a society to possibly notice signs of a problem so we can help avoid people from doing these types of things??