This is BUNK!!! Hot Car Deaths are NOT an 'accident'!!!

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

This is criminal negligence, nothing less. I can see no jail time due to the extreme loss he'll have to deal with for the rest of his days, but this is NOT the proper message.

Father of Twins Who Died in Hot Car Won't Be Charged, Ruled Accident

"He didn't mean to do it. God, he didn't mean to do it. He's got to live with that the rest of his life," Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference.

www.newsweek.com

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[Paratus]

This is criminal negligence, nothing less. I can see no jail time due to the extreme loss he'll have to deal with for the rest of his days, but this is NOT the proper message.

Father of Twins Who Died in Hot Car Won't Be Charged, Ruled Accident

"He didn't mean to do it. God, he didn't mean to do it. He's got to live with that the rest of his life," Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference.

www.newsweek.com

.

Without even reading the story, you - yes you - are susceptible to the exact same cognitive issues that every parent whose left a child in a car has suffered.

Getting all self-righteously angry feels good and helps push the thought it could happen to you away but doesn’t change the fact it can happen to you.

When my kids were little I chose to understand how it could happen, even to me so I could remain more vigilant.

 

[Zorba]

Unless they did it on purpose, it was an accident. People seriously need to learn the definition of accident, it doesn't mean completely unavoidable.

It's nice car companies are attempting to improve the situation. Also far more kids will drown from inattentive parents than die in a hot car. For some reason hot car deaths get national media coverage while drownings get basically none.

A toddler drowned in our city after a mom put her in a puddle jumper and stopped paying attention, and the life guard wasn't paying enough attention. Where are the calls to jail that mother, who actively decided to ignore her kid while she was participating in the highest risk activity for young children?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Unless they did it on purpose, it was an accident. People seriously need to learn the definition of accident, it doesn't mean completely unavoidable.

It's nice car companies are attempting to improve the situation. Also far more kids will drown from inattentive parents than die in a hot car. For some reason hot car deaths get national media coverage while drownings get basically none.

A toddler drowned in our city after a mom put her in a puddle jumper and stopped paying attention, and the life guard wasn't paying enough attention. Where are the calls to jail that mother, who actively decided to ignore her kid while she was participating in the highest risk activity for young children?

I remember when I was ~15 or so at an apartment pool, I snagged a 4? year old that was blubbering in the water, nary an adult to be found. Got him out and a parent ran up from who knows where. Unknown how that situation would have gone if I wasn't there but probably 'not great'.

Never understood why cars didn't have a sensor in the seats that open windows if it detects movement. They already do that for turning on/off airbags.

 

[purbeast0]

There is this commercial that runs on local sports radio here that talks about accidental deaths in the car and it always makes me laugh.

One of the suggestions to not forget your kids in the back of the car, is to put something that you need and is important and won't forget in your backseat, like a purse or something.

Because, you know ... you don't need your kids or they aren't important or anything...

 

[fleshconsumed]

There is this commercial that runs on local sports radio here that talks about accidental deaths in the car and it always makes me laugh.

One of the suggestions to not forget your kids in the back of the car, is to put something that you need and is important and won't forget in your backseat, like a purse or something.

Because, you know ... you don't need your kids or they aren't important or anything...

Thing is, you don't need kids to do a quick grocery run or to get into your work building that is key card protected. You do need your purse/wallet to pay for groceries or to get inside work.

 

[purbeast0]

Thing is, you don't need kids to do a quick grocery run or to get into your work building that is key card protected. You do need your purse/wallet to pay for groceries or to get inside work.

Yeah but when he says "put something important in your backseat that you won't forget", a person probably would be the #1 thing that comes to my mind lol.

I wish I could find it online somewhere.

 

[PingSpike]

There is this commercial that runs on local sports radio here that talks about accidental deaths in the car and it always makes me laugh.

One of the suggestions to not forget your kids in the back of the car, is to put something that you need and is important and won't forget in your backseat, like a purse or something.

Because, you know ... you don't need your kids or they aren't important or anything...

I get why you laugh, but imagine two working parents trading off daycare days or otherwise changing schedules and the baby falling asleep. Combine that with sleep deprivation and other stress and the fact you only need to screw up once.

Its actually not a bad idea. If you stuck your work badge under you kids car seat every day, whether they were there or not, it becomes pretty impossible to go to work without checking the car seat. I used to wear my good snow boots to work, put on an old pair of sneakers and then accidentally wear the sneakers home so I wouldn't have snow boots to clean the driveway. I solved this by putting my car keys in my boot after I traded shoes in the morning.

 

[Zorba]

Yeah but when he says "put something important in your backseat that you won't forget", a person probably would be the #1 thing that comes to my mind lol.

I wish I could find it online somewhere.

This has been advised for a long time. It sounds funny, but they mean something you'd always grab out of habit or need, like your work laptop.

 

[purbeast0]

I get why you laugh, but imagine two working parents trading off daycare days or otherwise changing schedules and the baby falling asleep. Combine that with sleep deprivation and other stress and the fact you only need to screw up once.

Its actually not a bad idea. If you stuck your work badge under you kids car seat every day, whether they were there or not, it becomes pretty impossible to go to work without checking the car seat. I used to wear my good snow boots to work, put on an old pair of sneakers and then accidentally wear the sneakers home so I wouldn't have snow boots to clean the driveway. I solved this by putting my car keys in my boot after I traded shoes in the morning.

I mean I have 2 kids and I could never imagine forgetting one (or both) of them is in the back seat. Like the whole idea of that just doesn't compute with me.

 

[Stokely]

Just because something is an accident doesn't mean people aren't held responsible. If I miss the brake pedal because my flip flop gets caught, well I didn't set out that day to kill that family of four...but I'd be in big trouble.

 

[nOOky]

We have an app and collars for our dogs that let us know where they are, and if they go without an owner they go into lost dog mode. I don't think it would be unreasonable to design a child seat that clicks into the safety harness of a car and could flash a notification that there is a child in the backseat, especially if the front doors are opened. It's just programming and a sensor or two. My car/passenger seat lets me know it needs a seatbelt if my 85 pound dog is sitting in it for example.

 

[woolfe9998]

Unless they did it on purpose, it was an accident. People seriously need to learn the definition of accident, it doesn't mean completely unavoidable.

It's nice car companies are attempting to improve the situation. Also far more kids will drown from inattentive parents than die in a hot car. For some reason hot car deaths get national media coverage while drownings get basically none.

A toddler drowned in our city after a mom put her in a puddle jumper and stopped paying attention, and the life guard wasn't paying enough attention. Where are the calls to jail that mother, who actively decided to ignore her kid while she was participating in the highest risk activity for young children?

A distinction between hot car deaths and drowning is that with drowning, the parent only need be inattentive for minutes. Hot car deaths require hours and hours of distraction and neglect. That's probably why they get more press. As to why drownings happen more often, that is why. Because parents being distracted for 3-5 minutes is more common than parents being distracted for 5-10 hrs.

In this case, BTW, it was 9 hours he left those kids in the car. That's a long time to not realize what you've done.

 

[woolfe9998]

This is criminal negligence, nothing less. I can see no jail time due to the extreme loss he'll have to deal with for the rest of his days, but this is NOT the proper message.

Father of Twins Who Died in Hot Car Won't Be Charged, Ruled Accident

"He didn't mean to do it. God, he didn't mean to do it. He's got to live with that the rest of his life," Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference.

www.newsweek.com

.

Parent should be charged with lowest degree of negligent homicide and probably get 1-2 yrs here. Not because he "deserves" more punishment. But because others need to see the consequences to make them more aware of how they're handling their kids.

 

[shortylickens]

No, not an accident. But it was unintentional, at least a court could rule that way sometimes.
Also they could rule it negligent. There was no intent of harm but clearly its the parents fault. Obviously kids dont know any better and cannot be held accountable.

What I do NOT understand is this has been a big deal in the news since at least the 80's, so I cant grasp why parents keep killing their kids.

 

[JTsyo]

Parent should be charged with lowest degree of negligent homicide and probably get 1-2 yrs here. Not because he "deserves" more punishment. But because others need to see the consequences to make them more aware of how they're handling their kids.

You don't think your kid dying is a higher consequence than prison time? These aren't consious decision being made so having a penalty isn't going to help much in most cases.

 

[woolfe9998]

You don't think your kid dying is a higher consequence than prison time? These aren't consious decision being made so having a penalty isn't going to help much in most cases.

If you'd read my post closely enough, you'd realize that this is not about whether the parent has been punished enough already or not. It has nothing to do with that. It's the effect that knowledge of prosecution and conviction has on other parents.

 

[JTsyo]

If you'd read my post closely enough, you'd realize that this is not about whether the parent has been punished enough already or not. It has nothing to do with that. It's the effect that knowledge of prosecution and conviction has on other parents.

What I'm saying is if I see an article where a child died, it would make think about how I handle my children in that situation more than if I see that a parent got prison time.

 

[woolfe9998]

What I'm saying is if I see an article where a child died, it would make think about how I handle my children in that situation more than if I see that a parent got prison time.

I'm sure that is true for many or even most people. But there are parents who leave their kids in hot cars because they just don't care as much about their kids as most others. For example, there was a case a few years back where a mother leaves her kid in a car, then goes and gets high, screwing her boyfriend for hours on end. She very likely didn't mean for the kid to die. She probably cared, just not all that much. She cared about herself more.

Even if this case isn't the same in terms of intent, knowledge of prosecution will deter selfish and/or immature parents from being neglectful because all the sudden they have to worry about their own ass too.

 

[Paratus]

Parent should be charged with lowest degree of negligent homicide and probably get 1-2 yrs here. Not because he "deserves" more punishment. But because others need to see the consequences to make them more aware of how they're handling their kids.

I'm going to disagree here. The consequence of losing a child dwarfs a year or two in jail and the way parents "handle" there kids have nothing to do with it.

Unless you didn't evolve as a human we all have the necessary biological weaknesses in our brains - under the right circumstances - to end up forgetting a child.

I highly suggest reading this Washington Post article from a decade ago to understand what I'm talking about.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

 

[woolfe9998]

I'm going to disagree here. The consequence of losing a child dwarfs a year or two in jail and the way parents "handle" there kids have nothing to do with it.

Unless you didn't evolve as a human we all have the necessary biological weaknesses in our brains - under the right circumstances - to end up forgetting a child.

I highly suggest reading this Washington Post article from a decade ago to understand what I'm talking about.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

Anyone can do it, but this sort of person is more likely to do it and is more deterrable than most.

Hot car death: Brevard mom left toddler in car during drug binge, police say

The mother of 1-year-old who died after she took him to a Melbourne fire station has been arrested in connection with his death.

www.clickorlando.com

 

[Zorba]

A distinction between hot car deaths and drowning is that with drowning, the parent only need be inattentive for minutes. Hot car deaths require hours and hours of distraction and neglect. That's probably why they get more press. As to why drownings happen more often, that is why. Because parents being distracted for 3-5 minutes is more common than parents being distracted for 5-10 hrs.

In this case, BTW, it was 9 hours he left those kids in the car. That's a long time to not realize what you've done.

It takes a few seconds of forgetfulness and depending on the temperature only 15 minutes to become fatal.

Not paying attention to a kid while swimming is intentional neglect.

The stories get traction because they are rare and they let people look down on others for being human. Meanwhile no stories about all the kids injured and killed because their parents couldn't be bothered to properly install a car seat or adjust it for the kid.

The actually happened to one of my mom's co-workers 25 years ago. He was an extremely nice guy and a good dad. It was absolutely devastating. The company had on-site day car in the parking lot. He picked up his daughter for a check up at his normal lunch time, afterwards he grabbed some drive through and she fell asleep in her rear facing car seat. He was thinking about an upcoming meeting he was late for. When he got back to the parking lot he just found a spot like he did everyday after lunch and ran inside for his meeting.

Easy to claim that he was dumb or horrible and that you'd never do it yourself, but telling yourself that you'd never do that makes it more likely you will.

 

[Brainonska511]

Just because something is an accident doesn't mean people aren't held responsible. If I miss the brake pedal because my flip flop gets caught, well I didn't set out that day to kill that family of four...but I'd be in big trouble.

The number of non-intoxicated people held responsible for vehicular manslaughter is laughably small.

 

[Zorba]

If you'd read my post closely enough, you'd realize that this is not about whether the parent has been punished enough already or not. It has nothing to do with that. It's the effect that knowledge of prosecution and conviction has on other parents.

Absolutely nothing.

Let me know when you are ready to put people in the slammer for 2 years for all the other ways kids die due to negligence. Like people hitting them in neighborhoods with their tanks. Not paying attention near water. Not properly installing car seats, etc.

Jail time will literally have zero deterance factor here. Education that it can happen to anyone. And putting in reminders in cars would be far more effective.

You and the OP claiming it can only happen to bad parents increases the likelihood of it happening more.

 

[woolfe9998]

Absolutely nothing.

Let me know when you are ready to put people in the slammer for 2 years for all the other ways kids die due to negligence. Like people hitting them in neighborhoods with their tanks. Not paying attention near water. Not properly installing car seats, etc.

Jail time will literally have zero deterance factor here. Education that it can happen to anyone. And putting in reminders in cars would be far more effective.

You and the OP claiming it can only happen to bad parents increases the likelihood of it happening more.

Never said it couldn't happen to anyone but bad parents. But bad parents do exist, and are the most deterrable.