MO - Boy, 13 mos, dies in hot car, Lee's Summit, 3 May 2012

[wfgodot]

Another one of these. I'm putting this in Up to the Minute as police have found no signs of foul play.

Lee’s Summit toddler who died had been left in car all day
Forgotten boy was in backseat all day. Such tragedies “more common than people realize.”

A Lee’s Summit teacher headed home from school Thursday afternoon suddenly realized she had never dropped off her 13-month-old son at day care that morning.

Still strapped in his car seat in the back, the boy wasn’t breathing. His mother and emergency personnel were unable to revive him.

Such a tragedy has played out at least 613 times nationwide since 1991, said Sue Auriemma, vice president of Kids and Cars, a Leawood-based nonprofit group that tracks cases of children who die in hot vehicles.
---
On Friday, Lee’s Summit authorities said they had completed the initial phase of their investigation, which revealed no signs of foul play.

It appears the mother mistakenly believed that she had dropped the boy off at day care on the way to work, police said.

She discovered him inside the car on the way home, about 4:30 p.m., and pulled over near Southwest Winterpark Boulevard and Southwest Wintercreek Drive, about five blocks from Cedar Creek Elementary, where she teaches.

It may take up to eight weeks for police to complete their investigation, said Sgt. Chris Depue, a police spokesman.
---

Much more at Kansas City Star link above; so sad. Lee's Summit is about 20 miles southeast of downtown Kansas City MO.

 

[davehead21]

This story truly breaks my heart. From everything I have heard, both parents are well-respected teachers in Lee's Summit. I am going to keep them in my prayers....they're going to have a rough, rough time I am afraid. I cannot even imagine what something like this would do to a marriage.

I like the Teddy Bear idea in the article. Hopefully that may save some lives.

 

[keeponsearching]

Awww. At first I thought this was the same story about another teacher. But realized quickly it was not. Just the other night I thought about these types of accidents and realized they would soon be in the news again. Very sad.

 

[wfgodot]

According to the statistics in the article linked above, it looks like each year averages about 30 deaths of this sort.

 

[Lucid]

Very sad.

I've had my moments of ignorance and downright absent minded-ness, (did I even remember to yield and check for cars before turning left at that green light? Or did I just go?) This sort of thing is a nightmare. One part of me thinks its almost impossible. But another part knows better, because I check on my baby - just to make sure she is even THERE - usually several times in the car. So obviously, my subconscious is aware that there is a chance that a mistake could be made, or that something could be forgotten.

I can get forgetting, thinking you stopped at the daycare, the same everyday routine running together and just going on autopilot. But I don't really understand how she didn't just glance in the rearview mirror even once with her child in the back of her mind, and suddenly realize...

I understand the mistake, I just don't understand not discovering it sooner.

 

[Quiche]

I haven't had a young one around since we've had to put them in the back seats all the time... I can't imagine the horror of this type of accident, I just can't. That poor little boy, old enough to cry out for his mama and realize he'd been forgotten. :cry:

Why can't they make a passenger position in the front seat that will be safe for little ones? I think the auto industry needs to go back to the drawing board. I can attest that some of the sweetest chitchats came from my time in the car with my little ones riding shotgun. It's good bonding time.

Can they make this happen? Imo, we often "improve" things beyond what is best-- I'd love to see babies and children safe in the front seats again. MOO :moo:

 

[jjenny]

I haven't had a young one around since we've had to put them in the back seats all the time... I can't imagine the horror of this type of accident, I just can't. That poor little boy, old enough to cry out for his mama and realize he'd been forgotten. :cry:

Why can't they make a passenger position in the front seat that will be safe for little ones? I think the auto industry needs to go back to the drawing board. I can attest that some of the sweetest chitchats came from my time in the car with my little ones riding shotgun. It's good bonding time.

Can they make this happen? Imo, we often "improve" things beyond what is best-- I'd love to see babies and children safe in the front seats again. MOO :moo:

They can't make the position on the front seat safer because that's where airbags are. Airbag deploys with sufficient force that it can severely injure a small child.

 

[Quiche]

They can't make the position on the front seat safer because that's where airbags are. Airbag deploys with sufficient force that it can severely injure a small child.

Yes, but can the airbags be altered? Let's say, made so they don't extend as far into the seat position but still protect against the dash and windshield? Idk, seems like engineers could solve it if it was desired. imo

 

[jjenny]

Yes, but can the airbags be altered? Let's say, made so they don't extend as far into the seat position but still protect against the dash and windshield? Idk, seems like engineers could solve it if it was desired. imo

There already are much simpler solutions that already exist. People can do simple things to help them remember there is a child in the car, because car manufacturers are not going to throw billions of $ on this problem through re-designing airbags and front seats. There are devices that one can install that will play some music if the car stops and there is a child in the backseat.

 

[Jacie Estes]

Something as simple as tying a ribbon, pink for girl and blue for boy, on the steering wheel. It's literally right in front of your eyes. Very low tech but should work.

 

[Ada]

Do cell phones have alarms? I don't have a phone so I don't know. Anyway, what about setting an alarm to go off 15 min after your usual work time to remind you to check the car for your baby?

 

[Reader]

Yes, but can the airbags be altered? Let's say, made so they don't extend as far into the seat position but still protect against the dash and windshield? Idk, seems like engineers could solve it if it was desired. imo

There should be a campaign to get congress to require car manufacturers to start working on this. If we can get hearings on the death of one teenager, surely we can get hearings on 30 deaths/year of our babies!

There already are much simpler solutions that already exist. People can do simple things to help them remember there is a child in the car, because car manufacturers are not going to throw billions of $ on this problem through re-designing airbags and front seats. There are devices that one can install that will play some music if the car stops and there is a child in the backseat.

Glad to hear that but to me it needs to be more specific...maybe the music could have a song that says: Check the baby, don't forget the baby!

Something as simple as tying a ribbon, pink for girl and blue for boy, on the steering wheel. It's literally right in front of your eyes. Very low tech but should work.

Very good idea....

Do cell phones have alarms? I don't have a phone so I don't know. Anyway, what about setting an alarm to go off 15 min after your usual work time to remind you to check the car for your baby?

I really like this one...it's a shame when people are paying more attention to their phones than their children...but this could work.

Being in Florida where the inside of a car in the summer can be way over 100 degrees, I dread every year hearing about these unnecessary deaths of babies starting again. I can understand the rush to get to work and being preoccupied, I can understand it but I can't forgive it when it causes the death of a child. There should be NOTHING more important than your child/children when you are a parent. A job is not forever, regret and grief are.

 

[Donjeta]

The problem with the phone is that many of these parents have had the caregiver call and ask about the child but they never heard the phone ring so they might not hear an alarm either.

 

[JBean]

It is positively frightening to me that we have to come up with ways to remember that our children are in the car.
All the ideas are good ones, don't get me wrong,I just cannot wrap my head around the fact that this actually needs to be done.

 

[SkewedView]

It is positively frightening to me that we have to come up with ways to remember that our children are in the car.
All the ideas are good ones, don't get me wrong,I just cannot wrap my head around the fact that this actually needs to be done.

Read this article, which daisy7 was kind enough to link to on a related thread:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...2/27/AR2009022701549.html?sid=ST2009030602446

It's long, but that's a good thing, as it explains very well how this happens, and why the vilifying of (most of) these parents is so wrong. The answers to your specific concerns are on the last page.

All JMO

 

[Boytwnmom]

these stories have long made me too uncomfortable to think about. On one hand it's so horrible, these babies dying that way because of their own parents. On the other hand most of these people seemed like really good parents. This article helped make sense of that dichotomy. Prosecuting and jailing these people would help nothing. And it is hard to prevent as everyone thinks it couldn't happen to them or most people don't even think about it. I had twins so maybe it would have been harder to forget them but I remember sleep deprived days when my mind wasn't functioning at optimal levels. memory is such an imperfect thing. I can't imagine how awful life is for these parents-there seems no escape from the pain.

Read this article, which daisy7 was kind enough to link to on a related thread:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...2/27/AR2009022701549.html?sid=ST2009030602446

It's long, but that's a good thing, as it explains very well how this happens, and why the vilifying of (most of) these parents is so wrong. The answers to your specific concerns are on the last page.

All JMO

 

[Kat]

Every summer on WS we have deaths due to heat from being left in cars.

It's only may. It's going to be a long summer here on WS

Rest in Peace little one.

 

[TerriM]

I remember when my DS was born. We were blessed to have the best babysitter in the world, my mom. My DH would drop him off to my mom in the morning and I would take a train. But I told my mom if my husband ever didn't drop off the baby don't assume we were staying home. Always call me. I had a fear my husband would. Forget the baby in the car. Unrealistic maybe or maybe not.

 

[SuziQ]

Seems to me that many of these cases are caused by simple variations from a normal morning schedule. A change on who takes the baby to that morning, making an unscheduled stop on the way to work to pick up donuts. Thank god, thank god, this never happened to me.

I always put my purse on the floor below the carseat so I would always have to open that door to retrieve it and view the carseat.

 

[raeann]

It is positively frightening to me that we have to come up with ways to remember that our children are in the car.
All the ideas are good ones, don't get me wrong,I just cannot wrap my head around the fact that this actually needs to be done.

There are developments invented to prevent this from happening.....they just have never come into general usage....this is one developed by a NASA scientist.....the article is TEN YEARS old!

It seems that SOME kind of device should be in everyday usage by now!

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/releases/2002/02-008.html

jmo