Dad Saves Son, Gets Ticketed in NJ

Heh, Jersey, where a dad saves his son, and gets ticketed in the process. Was he saving his son by making a left turn, perchance?

You might imagine a dad would get ticketed for not saving his son or attempting to if the tot was in danger, but lo and behold, that’s not how it went down during an incident in Winfield Park when a man had to make a snap decision between chasing after his kindergartner as he hurtled at full-speed toward a body of water and putting his Jeep’s emergency brake on.

Sure, there are some elements of the “dad saves son, gets ticket” story that make sense, and technically, Frank Roder was probably guilty of the violations for which a police officer wrote him up on Sunday. But the dad of 5-year-old Aidan explains that how just a week after he taught the kid to unbuckle himself and get out of the car unassisted.

And being 5, the elder Roder explains, Aidan did just that- unbuckling his bad self and making a beeline for the Rahway River while his dad looked for a parking space. And panicked, daddy didn’t park all that well. Frank says:

“I panicked and grabbed the windshield washer thing and thought it was the gear for park and here we are.”

So, as anyone would do, after he saved his son, Roder called the cops because the Jeep rolled into the river. Whoops. And when they arrived, he says, cops began citing him for negligently fearing for his child’s safety and neglecting to protect his Jeep- ABC explains:

“When Union County police showed up to the park and saw the Jeep in the water, Roder expected they’d help him out. But first, he was issued two tickets — one for failing to use the emergency brake and another for failing to produce his insurance card. The card was soaked, locked in the waterlogged truck.”

Predictably, when asked about the dad that was ticketed for saving his son, the Union County police told ABC that the “officer was following protocol and that it’s too late to take back the tickets once they’re written.” Roder will have to fight the citations in court to try and avoid paying the $110 in fees.