VA Toddler dies after being left in car

[scheming daemons]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070901888.html


I'm sorry... I have kids too... I get distracted too... But to go the whole day not realizing that YOU FORGOT TO DROP YOUR KID OFF AT DAYCARE is unbelievable and unforgivable.


Throw away the fucking key.

[gristy]

1. This happened here a few years ago.

So tragic. :(

Imagine oneself, if having done this, the feeling when one comes to the realization that one's child has been locked in one's closed car all day.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. I can't imagine recovering from being the fault of my child's death

[undeterred]

11. Happened here too

The mother was tired and stressed out - the family had just made the decision to put another child with special needs in a facility. Mistakes like this happen when good people are under pressure.

[geomon666]

13. This actually happens every year.

And not just to kids either. I heard the other day, some guy left his elderly parents in his car for hours while he went to work. His father ended up dying.

Just a horrible way to go.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. That poor baby!!! I hate hearing stories like these.

[Pirate Smile]

3. Every friggin summer this happens. A few days ago we had an elderly father

left in the car who died the same way these poor kids do.

[TomInTib]

4. This happens a few times every year.

I'll bet that guy is freaking right out.

[beam me up scottie]

6. A three month old in Tennessee just died when her mother left her in a car while she was in a bar.

Two bars, actually.

For seven hours.

It was 97°.


Link http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=8649807">here if you can stomach it.

[ingac70]

17. That poor, pretty little baby.

:(

[beam me up scottie]

18. I know.

That really got to me. Still does.

She couldn't even say she forgot her baby, she left her to die a horrible death for what?

[Fumesucker]

7. A grandmother forgot her grandchild in the car all day here in Atlanta some years ago..

Child died of course.

Tragic, and there is nothing we can do to these people that is worse than what they have done to themselves and their loved ones.

I came very close to breaking the window out of a parked car with kids in it one summer day, if the mother had shown up thirty seconds later it would have been a done deal, I was on the way to get the lug wrench from my car.

[yella_dawg]

8. Throw away the fucking key.

Yeah. It's not like losing your child is punishment or anything.

[Ilsa]

9. car wash accident here killed a child yesterday.

(I don't blame the Hummer driver. Even the driver of a small car couldn't have seen a one year old meandering in front of their vehicle. The parents should have been paying attention to their kids instead of expecting others to do this, IMO.

A toddler died after a Hummer ran him over while he and his brother played at a car wash Thursday.

The Hummer’s driver, a young man, will not be charged, Police Chief Bruce Ure said.

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Ure said of the driver. “He just didn’t see the small child that had wandered away.”

The driver hugged his knees and sobbed inside a covered lane at Lone Star Car Wash. An officer gently led him away for questioning. As he explained what happened, the driver wiped his eyes.

“He’ll never be the same,” Ure said.

The toddler and his six-year-old brother played as their parents cleaned their white Mitsubishi sedan shortly after 4 p.m., Ure said. Nearby, the driver finished vacuuming his sport utility vehicle and pulled forward, Ure said. He was not speeding, Ure said.

snip

Children often play in the parking lot, Hinojosa said.

“I tell the people all the time they need to watch their kids,” Hinojosa said.

[Fumesucker]

14. Parking lots are deadly for adults..

Let alone children..

Cars coming from every direction.

I centerpunched a cart one day myself, so I know how easy it is to miss seeing something when you are driving through a parking lot.

[Ilsa]

19. We have a real problem here with parents letting the kids run around.

No one can see the little tykes, but the parents act like they are immune to problems. Then it is somehow "god's will" when their sweet little child gets killed. I feel bad for the parents, but it is usually their fault. They let them roam all over the stores, too, as if they are at home.

[madeline_con]

43. Yep, and that's how they get hurt, killed, kidnapped.

Do parents really not see how dangerous this is?!

[RB TexLa]

10. They had billboards here saying to put your purse or your laptop beside the kid then you would

remember it's in the back seat.

[Wcross]

12. In Tennessee we had one die; Mother was in a bar drinking.

She left the kid in the car in 95 degree heat so she could knock back a couple of cold ones......

[YOY]

15. I'm looking at a picture of my 20 month old now...

HOW COULD HE?!?!?

Oh, I want to hug my baby.

[Maine-ah]

31. me too, YOY

mine is 20 mos. as well, and as soon as I'm done typing this, she's getting a big 'ole snuggle from Mama.

[SidneyCarton]

38. I feel the same way...

I read headlines like this and all I want to do is go hug my 13-month old daughter. Fortunately Mrs. Carton is an attentive and doting mother (I married up), but it awakens something visceral in the soul.

[noonwitch]

16. I had a friend who was a security guard at the mall before she became a cop

she said she broke the windows on cars more than once to get kids out of the heat. She was doing it once when the parents came upon her and yelled at her for breaking the windows-she called the cops and had them arrested.

There have been too many of these cases-it's like the people who sleep in bed with their babies, and crush them accidentally in their sleep. They don't plan on killing the kids, but it still happens and they probably don't need to have any kids in their care.

[Ilsa]

20. "Crushing" the babies usually comes with alcohol or drug abuse

or a problem with obesity. Nursing moms all over the world do it successfully. I'm happy to hear your friend is aggressive enough to break the car windows to save the infants. There is no excuse for intentionally leaving a child in a car in the heat.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

34. Nursing moms do it successfully all over the world.

You're right. The crushing part comes with obesity or alcohol or drug abuse.

I think keeping the baby in bed with you for night feedings is the easiest and best way to get some sleep and feed the baby at the same time.

However, lots of people disagree with me.

[Ilsa]

36. Yeah, i did both of mine that way. I was always "tuned" into their

feeding cycles and would start to awaken as they did to eat. Hubby and I didn't place our babies between us; I was the one in the middle.

It is believed the stimulation plays a part in keeping them breathing, as well as some genetic stuff. I think some component of breastmilk must be helping the neural synapses as well.

[Raksha]

44. I did that a few times when I was nursing,

although I didn't make a regular thing out of it. Usually I'd get up, but if I was very tired I'd take the baby to bed and let him or her (I have one of each) nurse while I went back to sleep.

In the morning I'd wake up stiff and sore from lying in one spot all night without moving. That's because I "knew" subconsciously that the baby was in bed with me and reacted accordingly.

[Midlodemocrat]

21. He will probably not do any time.

There is precedent here for that. A dad, who happened to be a minister, left his daughter in his car and she died. He got probation.

I think the courts feel that the person has suffered enough.

It's terrible. That poor little baby.

I can't imagine leaving a child in a car. It boggles the mind.

[Fumesucker]

22. Like most everything else in the US "justice" system..

That will probably depend on the race and class of the parent.

Poor and/or minority.. Excellent chance of doing hard time.

White/and or wealthy.. Vanishingly small chance of doing time.

[Midlodemocrat]

23. Most of the individuals who have left kids in their

cars accidently here have been white. It seems that the trend to not putting the parent in jail is 'where' the child was found. Ie, in the parking lot of Dad's work, a simple mistake; in the parking lot of a bar, Mom's a jerk.

The jury decisions remind me of the DWI decisions in the 70s and 80s. So many jurors had that idea of 'There but for the Grace of God, go I"

I feel for the guy. Just because I never did it, I can't fault him.

[Fumesucker]

27. I agree that circumstances should make a difference..

If you knowingly leave the child in the car while going into the bar (or wherever).. Negligent homicide or manslaughter at least, maybe even murder 2.

Honestly spacing it out I have a lot more sympathy for..

I'd be willing to wager that if you analyzed the cases, harsher punishment would go to the non white and or/poor than to the white and/or wealthy.

And I'm fish-belly white.

[Virginia Dare]

24. A father in Manassas DID do time for this..

he had a very large Catholic family, I think something like 10 kids, and the church lobbied hard to keep him out of jail because he was the sole provider, but they actually did make him do some time, a few months as I recall.

The mother had gone on a trip to Ireland with the eldest and he was left home with the rest of the children, something he wasn't accustomed to and left the baby in the car.

[Midlodemocrat]

25. This was down Richmond way.

It's pretty rare, here, though. Maybe it's more common in NoVA? I don't know.

It's just tragic.

[bpj62]

29. Manassas Family

This guy took the cake. He has 13 kids not 10 and he had the audacity to blame the death of his 2 year old on one of the other children who he said was supposed to be watching her. He then went to court and asked that the sentence be thrown out. The judge told me that since he did not get any jail time that this was the only way he could get justice for the girl. If you can't keep track of your kids quit having them. I have a hard enough time keeping track of my three kids.

[Virginia Dare]

30. Which is why the Catholic church was lobbying hard for them..

they were basically brainwashed by the church it seemed to me, and doing what they thought they were supposed to do, which was have as many kids as humanly possible. The father DID do SOME time didn't he?

[MountainLaurel]

35. Not to mention the fact

That it wasn't the first time the child who died had been left behind: She (I think) had been left in a video store not long before her death, and the parents hadn't noticed the child was missing until the store called. Also, the toddlers were often found by neighbors wandering in the street (a 4-lane road), and the reason the mother and daughter were in Ireland was that the 19-year-old had just gotten out of a mental facility after having a breakdown from the stress of caring for her younger siblings.

Winners all around.

[Virginia Dare]

26. The child was recently adopted from Russia..

the father was 49, I don't know if he was a first time father or not.

What I can't understand is, why didn't either the mother or the day care center check in to see where the baby was?...:shrug:

[Midlodemocrat]

28. You know, this is ugly of me.

but I am wondering if the adoption wasn't going well. If the child had RAD like a lot of children from the Eastern Bloc have.

Total speculation and I know, I know, it's harsh.

[Virginia Dare]

32. My guess is there is a lot more to the story here...

and I'm sure the adoption agency is running scared at this point. I know a couple who became parents for the first time in their 50's. There are some unique social problems involved there. I'm personally not crazy about the idea.

[Midlodemocrat]

33. My issue with the adoptions from the Eastern Bloc is the

ridiculous amounts of RAD these babies have. It's unfair to the parents NOT to inform them that the child has had no contact with human touch for the bulk of his/her life.

Interestingly, most people think that a child who at 16 months will go willingly to anyone is just a very friendly child, when in reality, it's a HUGE sign of RAD in adopted children. Any port in a storm kind of thing.

[Ilsa]

37. Please explain... RAD? Thank you! nt

[YOY]

39. Reactive Attachment Disorder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_attachment_disorder

Mostly from a lack of real human contact in developmental stages.

[Midlodemocrat]

40. Reactive Attachment Disorder.

Seen in children who have been warehoused in their formative years. They actually cannot bond with anyone. It's beyond disturbing.

[Orangeone]

41. I don't understand why this happens

I'm pretty absent minded I can forget "things", but not people! Work or other things can go to hell, the kid should be top priority.

[otohara]

42. OMG - How Horrible

poor baby, poor mom and dad. Their life will never be the same.

It sounds like he truly forgot -