‘A child in the middle of a busy road. Beside him a bicycle with training wheels, one wheel even turned’

“Miles, sit down!” I cried. After which I left the car and ran towards the child. At such a moment you forget that you are 33 weeks pregnant and normally at the pace of a snail.

Sometimes you have those days. Then you finally lie in bed at night and you are left with all kinds of things.

Saturday was one of those days for me. We had planned Lewis’s birthday and prior to that the boys both had a football match – obviously at different times. It was running and flying and it also came pouring down from the sky. In between we had ten minutes to put on something dry at home and quickly finish a sandwich and then we had to go back to the football field. Then it happened.

I wanted to pull out of the neighborhood and turn right, and there he was. A child, in the middle of the busy, main road. Next to him a bicycle with training wheels, one wheel even turned. The accident had just happened, maybe five seconds before.

“Miles, sit down!” I said. After which I left the car and ran towards the child. At such a moment you forget that you are 33 weeks pregnant and normally at the pace of a snail. Along with me came another woman – who turned out to be a nurse – and the people who had hit the child.

‘He was suddenly there!’ The terror in their eyes. I guessed the boy was six years old, not much older.

“Has anyone called 911?” I shouted, running back to get a rug from my trunk. That was the case, 112 was called.

I ran back with Nils – who was driving behind me because he had to go to football himself – and covered the baby. Someone very carefully slid a towel under his head. He was bleeding profusely and appeared to be conscious, but he was panicked and in obvious pain. At that moment my BHV course from a few years ago came back. Do not move, leave it, keep warm, reassure.

It was immediately chaos at the busy intersection. A number of men put on vests, they directed traffic. What was this child doing here alone, on a drizzly Saturday morning, on his bicycle along a busy road?

“Where are his parents?” I cried. But there was no one other than the bystanders. No parents in sight. I looked at the nurse in disbelief. ‘Does anyone know where he lives? Who are his parents?’

Nobody knew.

Meanwhile, the child was terribly panicked. He screamed and rolled his eyes. At that moment we saw that he had a serious head injury and was bleeding from his ear. The bad thing was: we couldn’t understand him and he didn’t seem to understand us either. How do you ask a child where mom and dad are? Where he lives?

The ambulance came fairly quickly, I think after eight or nine minutes. Still, it seemed to take a very long time. The people who had hit him stayed with it constantly, they are not to be blamed. They were shocked, but concerned, and stayed with him. The nurse and I had done our best to calm and reassure him, yet keep him as stable as possible. The men directed traffic and the boy ended up under several blankets to keep him warm. Everyone switched to help mode. Beautiful to see and yet very tragic, because the baby was left alone.

When Miles was playing his soccer game and I sat on a bench along the line getting soaked for the second time that morning, I noticed that it affected me more than I first thought. A smear of blood was still on my coat and I kept seeing that little body in front of me, lying helplessly in the street next to his bicycle. Fortunately, Miles was not bothered by it, he had not even received half of it. I hoped that they had been able to find out in the hospital where the baby came from, that they had been able to reach his parents by now. What a nightmare.

So finally, after Lewis’s birthday, I lay in bed and thought about the battle I fought against speeders in the area. The council does nothing about it. I know the people who hit the boy weren’t speeding, but you’ve got them in there… some of them can easily drive 60 or 70 miles per hour in a residential area! And the funny thing is that they are often people with children in the back. Why are you driving so fast? You will hit a child at that speed. I hope with all my heart that the boy is doing well and that his parents are informed soon. When my kids were little they always had a hepla – an iron military badge – on their jacket with their name and my phone number on it. Just for things like this. Fortunately it was never necessary, but it will happen to you. An accident really is a small corner and children are unpredictable, as it turns out.

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