North Carolina

Jesus christ, what a grim situation.

It sounds like the kids took an unsafe path home and got hit by a driver who was driving appropriately (I say that because my first thought was "why the hell charge the parents instead of the driver"). If I understand correctly they crossed directly across a major street instead of going to the intersection.

I think the only circumstances where it could be appropriate to charge the parents is if there's sufficient evidence that the parents were negligent in teaching the kids how to walk home and navigate traffic safely. Which seems almost impossible to prove, and would require an investigation, which, I suppose it's unclear if that's happened yet.

If they're in jail for the investigation to happen, or just because someone needs to be charged that's horrific. If somehow they already have meaningful evidence the kids weren't taught how to navigate traffic and walk home safely then I suppose the charges might make sense. I think that would be very difficult to produce evidence for, but perhaps interviews with the other children or the boy who was with the one who died in the car accident were enough to bring charges.

Whole thing is profoundly sad. Grieving parents with a dead child, thrown in jai. I'm glad an allowance was at least made to let them go to their child's funeral.