California 4-year-old dies in washing machine

[Contrary1]

:cry: How sad.

"MISSION VIEJO, Calif. - A 4-year-old girl in Southern California died after she climbed into a washing machine that began tumbling when her toddler brother hit its simple push-button start.

Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said Kayley Ishii apparently climbed into the front-loading washer Monday afternoon. Her 15-month-old brother either bumped or pushed the button to start the machine.

Amormino said the machine's controls were only 20 inches from the floor and the start switch was a simple push button. The girl was in the water-filled, tumbling machine for at least two minutes before her mother found her.

An autopsy Tuesday found Kayley died of blunt force trauma and the death was ruled accidental."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29002838/

[TwilightGardener]

1. God, what an awful way to die. Poor mother must be in a state of shock.

[BootinUp]

2. Its a damn shame when we leave product

safety testing to children.

[TahitiNut]

9. "So simple, a child can do it."

It's a "feature." :puke:

[Pavulon]

39. most front loaders come with electronic

molly guard.

[ogneopasno]

3. That poor family. I feel sorry for them all -- but that brother is going to have to live with that

knowledge when he gets older. I hope they get some good therapy and heal from this.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. Not if his parents have any sense.

He's 15 months old; they should hopefully be able to keep him from finding out.

[Xithras]

8. Indeed.

The boy never needs to know anything other than "your sister died in an accident". If I were his parent, I don't think I'd tell him the truth until he was an adult...if even then.

[ogneopasno]

10. All he has to do is google his sister's name to get details about the accident his parents never

talk about. That would be a shitty way to find out.

[Xithras]

13. Probably not.

I've tried Googling news articles I read back in the 90's and found that most can't be read today. If the kid is 15 months, it will be around a decade until he thinks to Google her. My bet is that he won't find anything by then, or it will be on results page 8679 because it's so old and has so few links that Google will pagerank it through the floor.

[Arkansas Granny]

23. Perhaps they should consult with a child psychologist or other professional for their opinion on thi

As horrible as the accident was, I think that when they feel he is mature enough to handle the news, he should be told the truth. Assuming other family members and people know the circumstances, it will be almost impossible to keep it from him forever. It would be better for him learn about it in a controlled situation than to have it sprung on him by surprise. Secrets have a way of coming out. JMHO.

[vanderBeth]

4. That must rip that mother's heart apart.

And the brother when he gets older.
:cry:

[Kali]

5. horrible accident

can't leave kids that young out of sight for very long

[Xithras]

7. Damn, my brothers did that when we were kids.

The one brother was six and climbed in the dryer while playing hide and seek. Our younger brother saw him do it and thought it would be funny to hit the start button. We heard two loud thumps before the brother in the dryer banged the door open. Luckily, he only came out of it with a pair of bruises.

Front loading washers LOCK when started to prevent the water from leaking out, so this little girl had no chance at escaping.

As the father of a four year old boy, I can't imagine what the parents are going through :cry:

[TwilightGardener]

11. That's why this story hits at my gut--sometimes I wonder how most of

us make it out of childhood alive. I think of all the stupid shit my brothers and I got into...and then I think of my kids and all the times they got out of my sight and into trouble.

[Xithras]

15. Oh, I've got stories like that for miles....

Like the time my brothers and I found half a box of .22 birdshot along the site of the road (presumably left by a hunter, since we lived in a rural area). I was about seven at the time and we thought it would be fun to smash them with a hammer. It was. Lots of fun. Nobody was hurt, and nothing important was damaged, but the thought of something bad happening NEVER EVEN CROSSED OUR MINDS. I look back on it today and wonder what the hell I was thinking, but the truth is that I wasn't...like most kids that age.

Or the BB gun wars where we shot live bb's and wore sunglasses to "protect" our eyes. Those games were often played in construction site trenches.

Or the bike jumps at the bottom of the hill, where a lucky kid might get ten whole feet of air. Paralysis? What's that?

I often wonder how I survived childhood.

[TwilightGardener]

17. LOL! I still blame Evil Knievel for most of my injuries as a kid--

now I didn't worship him (being a girl and all), but my brothers did, and they enticed me to bike-jump all sorts of crazy cement-block and scrap-wood ramps. My middle brother usually took most of the lumps, though, because he was dumb enough to always want to go first--before the "engineering" was proven stable.

edit to add--Your BB stories make my hair stand on end, especially with my younger son BEGGING for a BB gun (which he isn't going to get).

[ferrous wheel]

21. If you don't give your son the BB gun he wants so bad (and safety instruction)

he very well may get his hands on something a lot more powerful some place where you aren't.

[TwilightGardener]

27. He has those airsoft pellet guns and paper targets. They're like BB's but

bigger/less likely to put an eye out. I was hoping they'd curb his craving for more dangerous ammo. My dad almost lost the proverbial eye from a BB when he was a kid--they're not harmless "kid fun", that's for sure.

[Xithras]

31. I'm a gun owner and would never give my kids a bb gun.

My problem with BB guns boils down to the very way I used them as a kid. BB guns are weapons that can do real damage if they're used irresponsibly, but they're often looked at as toys. Toys, by definition, are something to have fun with and play with irresponsibly.

I bought my kids Airsoft guns when they were younger and they played with them the same way I played with my BB gun. The difference between the two is that Airsoft guns really are toys and can't do much damage (other than a very small welt if shot from very close range...I learned that one the hard way). They wanted to play, so I gave them toys.

When they were old enough to learn about real guns, I picked up a .22 rifle and taught them gun safety. They know that a real firearm isn't a toy and shouldn't be used irresponsibly. I tried hard to create a real distinction between "toys you play with" and "firearms you are serious with". Since BB guns blur that line, they aren't welcome in my household.

[ferrous wheel]

41. Your argument is completely inconsistent. You call BB guns "weapons that can do real damage"

and then dismiss them as inconsequential compared to .22s. You can't have it both ways. Give kids Airsoft Toys that are, according to your mindset and they will accept and transfer that mindset over to .22s when they get their hands on one...whether under your supervision or not. Telling children that a gun no matter how "unpowerful" is a toy is highly irresponsible.

[Xithras]

49. So you think an airsoft is as dangerous as a BB gun?

Or a .22? Sorry, I'm not one of those parents who freaks out because his kids want to play "war" in the backyard. Both of my older children have fired real firearms (.22's) since they were fairly young (six in my daughters case, seven in my sons). They have never hunted, but they understand that "real" firearms are not toys to be played with. They are to be handled carefully, aren't to be handled AT ALL when adults aren't around, and are only used at ranges or places designated for shooting. Shooting, for them, is a fun exercise of skill, but it's not a game.

The airsoft guns are a totally different story. They don't look like real guns, they don't feel like real guns, and they shoot big orange plastic pellets that can't hurt anything. Safety-wise, they're no more dangerous than those nerf guns.

I don't like BB guns simply because they straddle that line. On one hand, kids are encouraged to treat them as toys. On the other hand, they can do considerable damage and both look & feel like real firearms. I don't care for that concept, so they aren't welcome in my home.

[ferrous wheel]

50. Well, I'm not going to tell you how to raise your kids but I will tell you a little story

that happened around here last year. A kid (a big 13 year old) came within one or two seconds of being blasted away by the local sheriff deputies when he pointed one of these (I had to look for a picture) at one of the deputies when they found him walking down the street with it. (Some local resident had seen him and called the sheriff)



It might not look "real" close-up but if somebody pointed one at me around dark-thirty I would be ducking and reaching.

Just sayin'.

I won't argue about it any more though. Good luck.

on edit: The kid from down the street tells me it's "safe" because the tip of the barrel is painted orange. Unless they've banned red paint, that's not very comforting...

[Xithras]

52. My kids don't have airsoft guns that look like that.

My kids have two of these:



They also have a bright orange one that looks like something out of Star Trek. I wouldn't let my kids have an airsoft gun that looked like the real deal.

[fishwax]

35. my brother and I did too

same situation--a game of hide and seek. Oddly, I can't remember whether I turned the dryer on with him inside or he turned it on with me inside, but I remember my mom being pissed when we told her about it (we both thought it was funny until then).

Yeesh. What a horrible thing for that family to go through :(

[Greyhound]

12. Here's a lawsuit against the manufacturer.

Why would they put the switch only 20" off the floor. An adult would have to bend over to push it. This makes no sense at all.

[appleannie1]

14. Why would a start button be that low? The average adult would have to bend to turn it on.

[Xithras]

16. This is why...

Many front load machines are designed so they can be placed under a standard 36" counter. If you aren't using a counter, you can usually buy accessory drawers to raise them higher. I have a front mount machine with the drawer underneath, and the buttons are about 4" off the ground.

[hugo_from_TN]

18. My washer controls can be locked.

I thought that was a requirement. However, the parent needs to remember to keep it locked.

[uppityperson]

30. Controls on mine don't lock, 4 yr old front loading washer.

If I had a small child around I'd get one with locking capability.

[Xithras]

32. Mine don't n/t

[Contrary1]

19. Is this a pic of your washing machine?

If so, I don't get the 4" off the ground part. :shrug:

[Xithras]

33. LOL, yes. The 4" was a typo. I meant 4'

I was being shifty.

[ferrous wheel]

22. Do you mean 4'? I can't believe anybody would mfg a machine with controls

down at ankle height...
???

[hedgehog]

20. This is why we have a Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Of all the thousands of machines out there, this appears to be the first such incident. One of the functions of the CPS is to receive incident reports from hospitals and doctors and forward the info to manufacturers and users so modifications can be made. OSHA does much the same thing. When designing an appliance or industrial procedure, it's just about impossible to anticipate every last thing that can go wrong. Many people have been spared injury and death because information was spread around. Apparently the system failed when it came to pool drains, there should never have been so many children hurt and killed by faulty covers.



How long after the manufacturers' design a child safe switch before we hear someone complaining about how hard it is to turn on washing machines now, and why does government have to be a nanny?

[ferrous wheel]

24. Long ago as you probably know, refrigerators had locking handles

before the flexible magnetic seals were invented, it was all too common to hear of children getting locked inside them...usually ones that had been thrown away. Most states had laws requiring the doors to be removed but it didn't always get done. :cry:

[hedgehog]

25. My boss ridiculed OSHA when it first came in because one of the first documents issued

consisted of pages of rules about ladders; whether they could be painted, how many rungs per foot, shape of the rungs, thickness of the side rails etc. etc. It turned out that when national statistics were analyzed, more people were killed or hurt falling from a ladder or having a ladder break underneath them than any other cause. Today ladder inspections are mandatory and routine, and ladders are tossed when they become unsafe.

[Fire1]

26. Where are these parents? Where are the babysitters or care-

givers?? You CANNOT turn your back on toddlers and pre-schoolers!! Funding for parenting classes?

[TwilightGardener]

28. You are right, you cannot turn your back on toddlers. But even the most

paranoid parents get tired/distracted. That poor mom is already in for a lifetime of guilt, and I know as a paranoid parent myself that I have no right to cast the first stone.

[hedgehog]

29. I am and was very conscientious, but my children claim to have ridden

down the stairs in laundry baskets! Check the article in the OP, the mother's back was turned for 2 MINUTES! Let's see you try to take a pee break in 2 minutes or less!

[mnhtnbb]

40. LOL. My kids did the same--riding down the stairs in laundry baskets.

the carpeting was quite slippery. They started out with the younger one (both boys)in the basket
and the older one riding him around on the second floor hallway. All of a sudden, I heard
banging, and the older one had pushed the younger one down the stairs--like a "sled, Mom" he said.

One time I was in the kitchen and I heard what sounded like glass breaking. Opened the stairs
to the basement to find the two boys throwing glassware and dishes (stored in a cupboard)
on the cement floor! Broken glass everywhere. Both of them in bare feet. I yelled at them to stand still and I came down and had to lift each one over the broken mess.

Boys. They can get into the most amazing stuff.

Another time hubby and I were in the bedroom and the two boys were in the adjacent office. All of sudden, crying. We rushed in. The younger one had cut open his head. Years later, they told us
the older one had been spinning the younger one in the desk chair. He got up, was dizzy, fell and hit
his head on a bookcase!

:rofl:

[hedgehog]

46. They swear they did it all the time. I never heard or saw them do it.

I know I was exhausted some days, but was I really that exhausted?

[rpannier]

47. agreed

I have kids and the things you find out they`ve done is just amazing

You can`t watch them 24-7.

To be honest...nor should you

[Xithras]

34. Uhhh....do you HAVE kids?

Seriously, you cannot watch them all the time. When mine get wound up and start playing, I'm often reading a book or working one something while they run around the house. I don't get worried until things get quiet...then you know something is happening.

[Fire1]

37. Didn't mean to sound judgmental. Yes, I have children (grown

now)and as I recall, when I had to 'pee' or cook, clean or wash, they were in a play pen within eye sight. Reading was reserved for 'nap time.' Agreeably, accidents can happen when you're right with them, but mine were not allowed to 'run around.' Not at that age and especially when I had no help. Finally, after being an exhausted withering heap at the end of the day, my husband 'agreed' that I needed help, which allowed me to devote all of my time to my children. I know, everybody isn't that lucky, but it wasn't always that way.

[sandnsea]

51. Needed help?

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Help that did the cleaning, so you could stay by your children's side every second?

[JVS]

36. I thought washing machines' controls didn't work unless the door was closed.

[Berry Cool]

38. Sounds like the door WAS closed.

How awful.

Maybe the only kind of safety feature that would work in a situation like this is a sensor that would shut the machine off automatically if the load reached a certain weight that laundry alone could never reach, and that would be considered "overload." Lord knows mine turns off automatically every time it becomes "unbalanced." (It's a top loader.)

[hedgehog]

43. My last top loader had a solid brake that stopped it dead if the lid lifted.

My previous one just slowed down. Now THAT was dangerous as hell!

[Pavulon]

45. New ones do that

the machine we have would call a 30lb load overloaded. It also has child lock out.

However every crappy laundry mat has old machines that do not have those features.

I would think this is a pretty uncommon event.

[Deja Q]

42. How many washing machines do NOT have controls for clothing and other factors? Like "hot/warm/cold",

that will NOT start until each control is set?

One big-ass red button is going to be enticing to a naive little toddler.

I wonder if the front loading machine had a little window, so he could watch and learn. He'll be good for the Marines in about two decades...

(I am not heartless; that was a horrible way to die, a gross accident to be sure, the world just gets more and more bizarre and depressing by the day. May as well join it, in literary form.)

[NashVegas]

48. Yeah

My guess is the little girl had that all set up and thought she was going to go for a ride.

This is heartbreaking, but trying to pin blame anyone, mother, father, or manufacturer, is a fool's game.

[BlooInBloo]

44. Ah jeebus. Poor kid.