Circle of Safety

[snopes]

http://www.snopes.com/photos/acciden...leofsafety.asp

[Alarm]

My gut tells me photoshop. The picture's so tiny, it's hard to tell, but I don't think that a child making that crying face wouldn't have attracted attention by screaming at being stuck.

ETA: Blog

A road construction crew working for another company stopped at a convenience store along the highway on break. Look at the photo below.

An unattended child at a convenience store on a highway during a construction crew's break?

[GenYus234]

He may not be able to draw in enough breath to get a good scream out.

[UEL]

Or it could be that the tiny noise is what drew the worker out of the truck to walk around.

An aside: when I was at university in the *gasp* late '80s, I was conducting a survey of headstones in a community cemetery. My partner and I had to stop temporarily because a funeral procession arrived. It was the interrment of a 3 year old boy who had died very similar to what the OP is saying could have happened to this child.

It is possible.

[Alarm]

Originally Posted by GenYus234

He may not be able to draw in enough breath to get a good scream out.

Maybe it's an issue with proportions, but it seems to me that like most children, his head is bigger than the depth of his chest.

But' I've added an ETA to my earlier post. I'm still unconvinced this is true, even if the image is not faux.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

A mislabeled picture seems most likely to me.

The problem with the 'convenience store' claim is that the tire and the wheel well are almost certain to be very hot after being out all morning and then driven even a mile or two to a store. A toddler would not have gone into such a space willingly.

[Onyx_TKD]

I'm amused by this

Just a quick reminder to check the blind spots of your vehicle before you drive away; especially if there are children in the neighborhood.

in conjunction with that picture.

Inside the wheel well is certainly a "blind spot" in the sense that you can't see it from the drivers' seat, but if you tell the average driver "Check your blind spots," I doubt that checking inside the wheel wells (and underneath the car, etc.) is what they're going to think you're telling them to do.

[Lainie]

If there are outdoor or indoor-outodoor cats in your area, checking the wheel well and tops of the wheel for them is a good idea.

[Chloe]

That's a pretty small child to be outside without supervision.

[Buckle Up]

1. See a child trapped in your wheel well, terrified and crying.

2. Grab your camera and take a picture.



I hope this is fake.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Chloe

That's a pretty small child to be outside without supervision.

Yes, it is. That sometimes happens, of course, through parental negligience or underestimation of a toddler's skill.* But when it does, my WAG is there are ways for the child to come to harm that are far more likely than ending up jammed in the wheel well of a car.

*Never assume that a child who can walk cannot reach/operate a standard doorknob.

[RealityChuck]

I see no indication it's faked. And when I was training to be a bus driver, they required that you walk around the bus before you took it out to check for problems -- not necessarily something like this, but things like oil leaks or tires going flat. Truck drivers probably are trained to check out their rig before driving.

And while this seems possible for a big rig or large truck, most passenger vehicles don't have enough space for a toddler to squeeze inside the wheel well.

[Skeptic]

And don't forget pilots. Whether it's a Piper Cub or a B2 Bomber, the pilot will always walk around the aircraft first checking for any problems.

[Arriah]

Originally Posted by Lainie

*Never assume that a child who can walk cannot reach/operate a standard doorknob.

Or a sliding glass door lock.

[Lainie]

Fotunately, when a former neighbor of mine made the doorknob-assumption mistake, her kid just walked outside, took off his diaper, and wallowed in a nearby mud puddle like a piglet.

He could just as easily have toddled down our sleepy dead-end street to the busy state highway a block away.

[llewtrah]

I'm more inclined to think it's a mislabelled picture e.g. a child exploring or playing hide and seek on the family driveway has become trapped. I can imagine this sort of photo turning up in those sets of (often staged) pics about bad parents alongside pics of children in washing machines etc.

[Alarm]

Originally Posted by Chloe

That's a pretty small child to be outside without supervision.

Originally Posted by Lainie

Yes, it is. That sometimes happens, of course, through parental negligience or underestimation of a toddler's skill.* But when it does, my WAG is there are ways for the child to come to harm that are far more likely than ending up jammed in the wheel well of a car.

*Never assume that a child who can walk cannot reach/operate a standard doorknob.

Don't forget, it's a small child, without supervision, at a convenience store on a highway...

And someone just popped out their camera and took a picture instead of helping the child.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Alarm

Don't forget, it's a small child, without supervision, at a convenience store on a highway...

If the description is accurate.

And someone just popped out their camera and took a picture instead of helping the child.

Instead of, or before? I'm not condoning either approach, just pointing out that the picture being taken does not preclude help being given afterward.

[Don Enrico]

The picture could have been taken while help was on the way, also, the course of actions being
1. find child trapped
2. unsuccessfully try to free it
3. call 911 for help
4. take picture

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

There's a picture of my brother crying while dangling by his shirt from a truck window. If you saw that picture alone, you might think, "what an awful parent." But if you look at the whole series of photos, you'll see several pictures, before and after the dangling, of happy kids climbing all over their daddy's truck.

It's just a snapshot in time. Someone happened to have a camera.