TX - Kerrigan Petty, 4 mos, dies in hot car, Lindale, 8 Aug 2006

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LINDALE, Texas (AP) -- An infant was found dead in a sweltering vehicle outside a small-town city hall Tuesday after being left there by one of the town's reserve police officers, authorities said.

Officer Kevin Petty parked his truck Tuesday morning and drove a police car to a law-enforcement class in another town. About 3:20 p.m., he contacted Lindale police in a panic and said he did not recall taking his infant to day care, Justice of the Peace James R. Cowart told The Associated Press.

Petty's 5-month-old daughter was discovered dead inside the truck, Cowart said. Temperatures in the east Texas community climbed to 102 degrees during the day, the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRF_BABY_HEAT_DEATH?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
 
How horrible and sad. This dad probably wasn't in the habit of dropping the baby off at daycare and he just forgot he had her with him. Such a tragedy and one that he will have to live with for the rest of his life.
 
Every time I hear about this happening - and it seems to happen with alarming regularity - I am heartbroken for everyone involved.My prayers go out to the family.
 
Oh my, this is so sad. That poor dad must be beating himself up. Prayers for him and his family. Someone mentioned before that there needs to be a device to notify the parent that a baby is in the backseat. Cars have alarms to alert you when your lights are on, alarms to tell you to buckle up, surely someone could create an alarm to remind the driver that a baby is in the carseat. I'm not an engineer, but possibly carseats could come w/ a device that can read an empty carseat verses one w/ a baby in it by the weight of it. Maybe somehow these carseats could be programed to sound an alarm when the engine was turned off. Hope this makes sense.
 
There have already been some devises made, one problem is no one ever thinks they will be the one who could ever forget their baby is in the back and so they don't buy them. In reading articles about this problem it stated there are an average of 11 deaths every summer like this. Very sad and tragic for everyone involved.

OB
 
....devices....like seatbelts and the warning noises cars make when you do not wear them. Hopefully, some day these will just be a part of any car...
 
cappuccina said:
....devices....like seatbelts and the warning noises cars make when you do not wear them. Hopefully, some day these will just be a part of any car...
Click to expand...

It should be mandatory.
 
kahskye said:
Oh my, this is so sad. That poor dad must be beating himself up. Prayers for him and his family. Someone mentioned before that there needs to be a device to notify the parent that a baby is in the backseat. Cars have alarms to alert you when your lights are on, alarms to tell you to buckle up, surely someone could create an alarm to remind the driver that a baby is in the carseat. I'm not an engineer, but possibly carseats could come w/ a device that can read an empty carseat verses one w/ a baby in it by the weight of it. Maybe somehow these carseats could be programed to sound an alarm when the engine was turned off. Hope this makes sense.
Click to expand...
It makes perfect sense. My Mazda 3 has a weight meter on the front seat that will activate the airbag only if a person is sitting in it. My guess is if I were to ever get in an accident it would only deploy the passenger seat airbag the if someone was actually sitting in that seat since they cost so much to replace.

This same technology can certainly be used, and should be, to alert the driver that something is still in the back seat.

I also make it a habit, when I walk through my company's parking lot, to check inside of the vehicles I walk by just to make sure any infants are still not inside them.
 
This may sound cynical but if it was anyone else besides a police officer everyone would be up in arms about neglect and arresting him...I've seen it here before.
 
lymom3 said:
This may sound cynical but if it was anyone else besides a police officer everyone would be up in arms about neglect and arresting him...I've seen it here before.
Click to expand...




My feeling would be the same regardless of who it is. I don't believe that the father meant to leave his baby in the car. He will be punishing himself for the rest of his life.
 
This is so sad. Everytime I hear of this it makes me ill..
 
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