Team-BHP - Careful - Handbrake Lever!!

Friends,

I was at a children's hospital lastweek to attend to my son's accidental injury for his right hand's little finger.
I saw a 2 year old girl with her right fore finger amputated to half!!:Shockked:
I asked the parents how it happened and the father told me that he pulled the parking brake/hand brake lever in his Zen without seeing his daughter's hand!!:Frustrati

The reason of my post here is that please do take care of these incidents/accidents. It was a pain to see the kid going through the ordeal!!

The new cars come with hand brake lever covers. I urge for all the others who do not have them covered, please get some cover till the grip of the handle. I have seen Indicas/cabs without the covers!!

Lets avoid to the extent we can-- ALL THE TROUBLE!!

I'm guessing it was the old zen which had the hand brake mechanism at the back of the lever exposed. None of the new gen cars have it exposed apart from the M800 I guess. All of them have a plastic shroud.

Poor thing! I hope she regains all functions of the finger.
I've heard of other things getting stuck b/w the lever- mostly pens/coins.My uncle used to keep a towel over the hand brake,and I guess to some extent it was to prevent such incidents where injury was possible.

My Corsa has a cover on the hand brake opening so I can be relaxed about my future kids.

But it is really gruesome! I hope we all take care, especially the ones with little ones.

Very sad incident. :(

Putting a piece of cloths or soft cover is not going to help. People should be careful with the kids in the car. They do play around a lot in the car.
As safety:
They should not be in front seats,
They should be restrained in movement. They do have the habbit of getting between the front seats.
They play with the switches, button etc. Use the child safety lock on rear doors. And secure the windows.
Best is to restrain them with seat belts. Not only it is safe, but keep them in place. They will protest initially but later on they will get used to it.

Very sad!! thanks for bringing it up mate. I have a zen, but just did not imagine that such a thing could happen. I hardly use the handbrake, but it is good to watch out for such things.

Hey Thanks for bringing this up. And i agree it could be on the old Zen. I say this because i drive one daily with my toddler in the back seat. I could almost feel the pain of the kiddo and her DAD who will see the daughters finger and repent the mistake all his life. The fore finger being one of the most important one which i realised while typing with mine.

Any one knows where i can find a cover designed for that spot in bangalore? Would MASS have it? if yes which one?

For know i\'ll play safe and cover it with some cloth for the time being.

Thanks Surya and others and Team-BHP! Keep \'Enlightening\' us in true sense of the word.

Thats a very sad incident. so unfortunate. everyone please take care while travelling with kids.

@ jat: agree:. with safety belts on they will definitely be safe.
@ zenster : If not zens, You can try changing the handbrake covers to ones with the cap , something like alto\'s.

getsurya - a very sad incident. I really appreciate your taking the time to caution fellow readers. You never know how many accidents you\'ve avoided by letting people know this. I have a 2 year old too and can\'t imagine the compunction her father has to live the rest of his life with.
May God bless the little girl and your son. Hope your son is alright now!