2 Children die after truck plunges into lake

[susnoat]

This is so sad. I hope this does not take a turn for the worse. I keep thinking Amanda Hamm.

Here are my thoughts:

1) Dont you have to depress the brake to get a vehicle out of park?
2) Why wernt the children in car seats?
3) How long does it take to step out and get your mail?
4) Why was the truck facing away from the house, and not toward the house? I mean who leaves with small kids that age at this time of night?
5) She wasnt leaving because she claims one child was asleep, so wouldnt the truck be facing the house and not the lake?

Im sorry to say this, but sumthin just isnt addin up here.


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...0BF94D6A2F43F246862574F3001297E8?OpenDocument

Tamaroa, Ill. — Bridget Radake says she frantically tried to save her two children as they were trapped in the cab of a pickup sinking in a lake.

"Savannah was looking at me and thought I was playing with her through the window," Radake said on Thursday in an interview as she sat alone in her home just yards from where her truck plunged into a lake two days earlier. "I was banging on the window, but it wouldn't break. Then the truck just went under."

 

[fran]

What a sad case.

You have some good questions. I'll be looking for the answers.

No matter what the answers are, the sad fact is these two beautiful children are gone forever.

fran

 

[CaliKid]

Yikes, I hope this was an accident. I swear though, if she did this on purpose, God help her soul. Parents killing their children and claiming "accident" is beginning to reach epidemic proportions.

 

[raysgirl1126]

Oh my gosh. This is horrible.

What a horrible accident. Or at least I hope this was an accident. I just can't imagine what I wouldn't do to get those kids outta the truck. I mean where was the mom when the police arrived? I hope still banging on the window of the truck.

 

[SuziQ]

http://www.wsiltv.com/p/news_details.php?newsID=5928&type=top

(snips)
"Now they're trying to make it look like I did it but I didn't do it" says Mother Bridget Radake.

Bridget's parents say they let her borrow their 1991 Ford F250 after she wrecked her car last week.
They claim it's possible a child could put the truck in gear.

"There was no safety device where you had to use a brake to shift it, you do not have to" says Richard Radake.

Police and DCFS are investigating.
This is what DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe had to say:

"The department is investigating these deaths and had two pervious substantiated allegations of neglect against this mother."

Marlowe says DCFS visited the home last October and this past April but never removed the children from the home.
Radake says her an ex-husband made false reports.

'He wanted to cause trouble."

 

[SuziQ]

I believe this is the accident that Bridget father refers to in the post above:

http://www.register-news.com/local/local_story_295095610.html

(snip)
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office incident logs, a man called 911 at 2:56 a.m. Sunday stating a car had hit the railroad tracks near the 11000 block of East Straw Road and the horn was going off. The man reported to the JCSO that a woman was out of the car and bleeding, “saying she is hurt.”

When sheriff deputies arrived on the scene, they found the owner of the vehicle, Bridget Radake, near the vehicle, according to logs. According to Jefferson Fire Protection District, which arrived on the scene at 3:16 a.m., Radake was driving on Illinois 148 and ran off the road.

 

[SuziQ]

Not sure if this has anything to do with anything, but more info on Mom's past:

http://www.bnd.com/326/story/525601.html

(snip)
Kellerman, the sheriff, said the children weren't fastened in by seat belts when the truck entered the lake.
Kellerman said without elaborating that he was aware that child welfare authorities had been called to the home in the past. Kendall Marlowe, an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokesman, told The Associated Press there were substantiated allegations of neglect against Radake in October 2007 and April of this year involving one of the two toddlers. Marlowe declined to elaborate.
"They were the only children in the mother's care," Marlowe said of the toddlers. Radake has other children, but they have been in the custody of other relatives, Marlowe said.
A records check showed that in 2006, Radake was given court supervision for a car accident and illegally transporting alcohol. In 2001, a Jackson County judge gave Radake a year of court supervision for drunken driving.

 

[fran]

So far, I haven't seen anything other than an accident. I'll have to wait until LE investigates further.

According to the first article I read, one of her teenage sons was there and tried to rescue the children as well, until help arrived. I so hope they did everything in their power to resue those children. Can't see how they couldn't have broken the window, but I wasn't there so I have no idea how quickly the truck sank.

I sure hope she's not lying.


fran

 

[OkGrace]

I had a rodeo and one day I pulled up by my pond (no kids ) and for whatever reason never put it in park (just used emergency brake) Right after I jumped out it started towards the pond ,I was able to jump in and stop it in the nick of time.

I think it could have happened however I tend to think "the guilty dog barks first" and I do not think I would care what others thought about me if this situation happened to me.
I would be devastated, just destroyed and would take any punishment without complaint.

 

[mommy7]

question 1 Truck is being checked out.
Bridget's father said you did not have to depress brake to change gears.
question 2 she had just lfet mother and fahter's house which is just on the other side of a 3 area lake.
question 3. it would just take seconds to check mail.
question 4. truck was facing in the driveway going to house. when you turn off the blacktop you make a sharp right turn stop at mail box truck would be pointing straight to lake. I have heard all kinds of storys. Was it a accident. I don't know but she was in the bar awhile back trying to sell the children. To me that sounds bad for her.

 

[SewingDeb]

Trying to sell the children in a bar? Can you elaborate, mommy7?

 

[MissieMt]

Hmmm, I'm still very undecided on this one. It could very well have been a horrible accident (although most likely prevented if car seats were in use) but it also could very well have been intentional. I look forward to reading what LE finds in this case.

 

[mommy7]

This is what is going around town here. I have been told this by three different people. That she was in the bar with the children and that she told a man in there that she would sell her daughter to him for 50.00. He had her sign a paper. I also heard today that her sons. The ones that try to save the baby have moved out of her home. They have move in with their dad. She keeps changing her story. There is alot of things that make a person think she did it but you know like the boy that call wolf. All her bad action from the past make people around her to think she meant for this to happen. I just want to pray for her family. Father mother and the other children the oldest son 19 tried all he could to save his sister and brother. This is going to be hard on him. Pray for the family.

 

[MissieMt]

another article, mentions she was on pain pills...
http://www.wsiltv.com/p/news_details.php?newsID=5933&type=top