Dad leaves toddler to die in hot car while he plays games on Play Station

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terribly sad. RIP to the little one. Hoping that someday soon there will be a safety feature installed in cars to prevent this.

I have a minivan and one thing I do is open the sliding doors, every single time I park the car, regardless of when or where. It forces me to walk around the whole van and check the car seats, before closing the doors. DH has started doing this too when he drives the van.

Car manufacturers would not have prevented this dad from getting on his Play Station and possibly day drinking. This was a regular pattern of deliberately leaving the kids in the car, not a one off error.

Your kids are luckier with you and DH and your commitment to their safety and well being. This loser was not that.

It's true -- like many I read that Washington Post piece years ago about how many of these cases are often purely accidental deaths due to overtired parents or some change in routine that causes a parent to not realize a child is sleeping in the back seat (e.g. they aren't usually the ones to take the baby to daycare and they fall into the routine of driving to work instead and forget). Safety features on cars that would for instance not allow you to lock the car without looking in the back seat or would play a loud alarm upon getting out of the car if there was a person in the back seat could have saved lives in those cases.

But this dad KNEW he was leaving the child in the car. He did it on purpose. He claims the car normally alerts him when it shuts off (and he claims he left the car on with the AC running) but he lied about other things (like how long the child had been in the car) so who knows. In any case this dad would have just ignored or overridden any alert designed to prevent him from accidentally leaving the child locked in a car on a 109 degree day. That was his goal.

Normally I have so much sympathy for parents in these cases but not in this one. This was child abuse and neglect.

I just can’t for the life of me wrap my mind around why the car on a hot day would be the chosen place to contain her?

Why not put her in her crib with snacks and an iPad? Not saying that is stellar parenting, but he could probably get away neglecting her for a while with screens and goldfish without the risk of heat death.

He was not only a lazy crap parent, but an incredibly stupid one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terribly sad. RIP to the little one. Hoping that someday soon there will be a safety feature installed in cars to prevent this.

I have a minivan and one thing I do is open the sliding doors, every single time I park the car, regardless of when or where. It forces me to walk around the whole van and check the car seats, before closing the doors. DH has started doing this too when he drives the van.

Car manufacturers would not have prevented this dad from getting on his Play Station and possibly day drinking. This was a regular pattern of deliberately leaving the kids in the car, not a one off error.

Your kids are luckier with you and DH and your commitment to their safety and well being. This loser was not that.

It's true -- like many I read that Washington Post piece years ago about how many of these cases are often purely accidental deaths due to overtired parents or some change in routine that causes a parent to not realize a child is sleeping in the back seat (e.g. they aren't usually the ones to take the baby to daycare and they fall into the routine of driving to work instead and forget). Safety features on cars that would for instance not allow you to lock the car without looking in the back seat or would play a loud alarm upon getting out of the car if there was a person in the back seat could have saved lives in those cases.

But this dad KNEW he was leaving the child in the car. He did it on purpose. He claims the car normally alerts him when it shuts off (and he claims he left the car on with the AC running) but he lied about other things (like how long the child had been in the car) so who knows. In any case this dad would have just ignored or overridden any alert designed to prevent him from accidentally leaving the child locked in a car on a 109 degree day. That was his goal.

Normally I have so much sympathy for parents in these cases but not in this one. This was child abuse and neglect.

I just can’t for the life of me wrap my mind around why the car on a hot day would be the chosen place to contain her?

Why not put her in her crib with snacks and an iPad? Not saying that is stellar parenting, but he could probably get away neglecting her for a while with screens and goldfish without the risk of heat death.

He was not only a lazy crap parent, but an incredibly stupid one.

the child probably fell asleep in the car and he didn't want to move her, this happened to me a lot as a parent with kids that age, however i would sit in the car of course there would be a risk i fell asleep as i was tired from keeping up with a young child let alone multiple. I truly believe cars should be required to solve this issue of being left in a hot car, tesla has done a great job and it should be a law to ensure cars notify and alert if someone is in the car especially with high heat or cold.

[Anonymous]

His next hearing is August 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terribly sad. RIP to the little one. Hoping that someday soon there will be a safety feature installed in cars to prevent this.

I have a minivan and one thing I do is open the sliding doors, every single time I park the car, regardless of when or where. It forces me to walk around the whole van and check the car seats, before closing the doors. DH has started doing this too when he drives the van.

Car manufacturers would not have prevented this dad from getting on his Play Station and possibly day drinking. This was a regular pattern of deliberately leaving the kids in the car, not a one off error.

Your kids are luckier with you and DH and your commitment to their safety and well being. This loser was not that.

It's true -- like many I read that Washington Post piece years ago about how many of these cases are often purely accidental deaths due to overtired parents or some change in routine that causes a parent to not realize a child is sleeping in the back seat (e.g. they aren't usually the ones to take the baby to daycare and they fall into the routine of driving to work instead and forget). Safety features on cars that would for instance not allow you to lock the car without looking in the back seat or would play a loud alarm upon getting out of the car if there was a person in the back seat could have saved lives in those cases.

But this dad KNEW he was leaving the child in the car. He did it on purpose. He claims the car normally alerts him when it shuts off (and he claims he left the car on with the AC running) but he lied about other things (like how long the child had been in the car) so who knows. In any case this dad would have just ignored or overridden any alert designed to prevent him from accidentally leaving the child locked in a car on a 109 degree day. That was his goal.

Normally I have so much sympathy for parents in these cases but not in this one. This was child abuse and neglect.

I just can’t for the life of me wrap my mind around why the car on a hot day would be the chosen place to contain her?

Why not put her in her crib with snacks and an iPad? Not saying that is stellar parenting, but he could probably get away neglecting her for a while with screens and goldfish without the risk of heat death.

He was not only a lazy crap parent, but an incredibly stupid one.

the child probably fell asleep in the car and he didn't want to move her, this happened to me a lot as a parent with kids that age, however i would sit in the car of course there would be a risk i fell asleep as i was tired from keeping up with a young child let alone multiple. I truly believe cars should be required to solve this issue of being left in a hot car, tesla has done a great job and it should be a law to ensure cars notify and alert if someone is in the car especially with high heat or cold.

How would that have mattered here? He knew where she was and deliberately left there, it wasn't something he had no "notice" of?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we please lock this thread now?

You can skip it if you would like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have intense anxiety about the 5 seconds it takes me to walk around the car to the driver’s side after I load my kid in. Like what happens if I suddenly pass out?

Same!

You should get medication for your generalized anxiety disorder. Seriously, there’s no reason to go through life like that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we please lock this thread now?

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terribly sad. RIP to the little one. Hoping that someday soon there will be a safety feature installed in cars to prevent this.

I have a minivan and one thing I do is open the sliding doors, every single time I park the car, regardless of when or where. It forces me to walk around the whole van and check the car seats, before closing the doors. DH has started doing this too when he drives the van.

Car manufacturers would not have prevented this dad from getting on his Play Station and possibly day drinking. This was a regular pattern of deliberately leaving the kids in the car, not a one off error.

Your kids are luckier with you and DH and your commitment to their safety and well being. This loser was not that.

It's true -- like many I read that Washington Post piece years ago about how many of these cases are often purely accidental deaths due to overtired parents or some change in routine that causes a parent to not realize a child is sleeping in the back seat (e.g. they aren't usually the ones to take the baby to daycare and they fall into the routine of driving to work instead and forget). Safety features on cars that would for instance not allow you to lock the car without looking in the back seat or would play a loud alarm upon getting out of the car if there was a person in the back seat could have saved lives in those cases.

But this dad KNEW he was leaving the child in the car. He did it on purpose. He claims the car normally alerts him when it shuts off (and he claims he left the car on with the AC running) but he lied about other things (like how long the child had been in the car) so who knows. In any case this dad would have just ignored or overridden any alert designed to prevent him from accidentally leaving the child locked in a car on a 109 degree day. That was his goal.

Normally I have so much sympathy for parents in these cases but not in this one. This was child abuse and neglect.

I just can’t for the life of me wrap my mind around why the car on a hot day would be the chosen place to contain her?

Why not put her in her crib with snacks and an iPad? Not saying that is stellar parenting, but he could probably get away neglecting her for a while with screens and goldfish without the risk of heat death.

He was not only a lazy crap parent, but an incredibly stupid one.

the child probably fell asleep in the car and he didn't want to move her, this happened to me a lot as a parent with kids that age, however i would sit in the car of course there would be a risk i fell asleep as i was tired from keeping up with a young child let alone multiple. I truly believe cars should be required to solve this issue of being left in a hot car, tesla has done a great job and it should be a law to ensure cars notify and alert if someone is in the car especially with high heat or cold.

How would that have mattered here? He knew where she was and deliberately left there, it wasn't something he had no "notice" of?

some ideas, car honks if it notices someone in the car and the heat is above 80 in the car, the ac turns on and car starts honking etc lots of ideas,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terribly sad. RIP to the little one. Hoping that someday soon there will be a safety feature installed in cars to prevent this.

I have a minivan and one thing I do is open the sliding doors, every single time I park the car, regardless of when or where. It forces me to walk around the whole van and check the car seats, before closing the doors. DH has started doing this too when he drives the van.

Car manufacturers would not have prevented this dad from getting on his Play Station and possibly day drinking. This was a regular pattern of deliberately leaving the kids in the car, not a one off error.

Your kids are luckier with you and DH and your commitment to their safety and well being. This loser was not that.

It's true -- like many I read that Washington Post piece years ago about how many of these cases are often purely accidental deaths due to overtired parents or some change in routine that causes a parent to not realize a child is sleeping in the back seat (e.g. they aren't usually the ones to take the baby to daycare and they fall into the routine of driving to work instead and forget). Safety features on cars that would for instance not allow you to lock the car without looking in the back seat or would play a loud alarm upon getting out of the car if there was a person in the back seat could have saved lives in those cases.

But this dad KNEW he was leaving the child in the car. He did it on purpose. He claims the car normally alerts him when it shuts off (and he claims he left the car on with the AC running) but he lied about other things (like how long the child had been in the car) so who knows. In any case this dad would have just ignored or overridden any alert designed to prevent him from accidentally leaving the child locked in a car on a 109 degree day. That was his goal.

Normally I have so much sympathy for parents in these cases but not in this one. This was child abuse and neglect.

I just can’t for the life of me wrap my mind around why the car on a hot day would be the chosen place to contain her?

Why not put her in her crib with snacks and an iPad? Not saying that is stellar parenting, but he could probably get away neglecting her for a while with screens and goldfish without the risk of heat death.

He was not only a lazy crap parent, but an incredibly stupid one.

the child probably fell asleep in the car and he didn't want to move her, this happened to me a lot as a parent with kids that age, however i would sit in the car of course there would be a risk i fell asleep as i was tired from keeping up with a young child let alone multiple. I truly believe cars should be required to solve this issue of being left in a hot car, tesla has done a great job and it should be a law to ensure cars notify and alert if someone is in the car especially with high heat or cold.

What are you talking about? He KNEW she was in the car. An alert that someone was in the car would not have prevented this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terribly sad. RIP to the little one. Hoping that someday soon there will be a safety feature installed in cars to prevent this.

I have a minivan and one thing I do is open the sliding doors, every single time I park the car, regardless of when or where. It forces me to walk around the whole van and check the car seats, before closing the doors. DH has started doing this too when he drives the van.

Car manufacturers would not have prevented this dad from getting on his Play Station and possibly day drinking. This was a regular pattern of deliberately leaving the kids in the car, not a one off error.

Your kids are luckier with you and DH and your commitment to their safety and well being. This loser was not that.

It's true -- like many I read that Washington Post piece years ago about how many of these cases are often purely accidental deaths due to overtired parents or some change in routine that causes a parent to not realize a child is sleeping in the back seat (e.g. they aren't usually the ones to take the baby to daycare and they fall into the routine of driving to work instead and forget). Safety features on cars that would for instance not allow you to lock the car without looking in the back seat or would play a loud alarm upon getting out of the car if there was a person in the back seat could have saved lives in those cases.

But this dad KNEW he was leaving the child in the car. He did it on purpose. He claims the car normally alerts him when it shuts off (and he claims he left the car on with the AC running) but he lied about other things (like how long the child had been in the car) so who knows. In any case this dad would have just ignored or overridden any alert designed to prevent him from accidentally leaving the child locked in a car on a 109 degree day. That was his goal.

Normally I have so much sympathy for parents in these cases but not in this one. This was child abuse and neglect.

I just can’t for the life of me wrap my mind around why the car on a hot day would be the chosen place to contain her?

Why not put her in her crib with snacks and an iPad? Not saying that is stellar parenting, but he could probably get away neglecting her for a while with screens and goldfish without the risk of heat death.

He was not only a lazy crap parent, but an incredibly stupid one.

the child probably fell asleep in the car and he didn't want to move her, this happened to me a lot as a parent with kids that age, however i would sit in the car of course there would be a risk i fell asleep as i was tired from keeping up with a young child let alone multiple. I truly believe cars should be required to solve this issue of being left in a hot car, tesla has done a great job and it should be a law to ensure cars notify and alert if someone is in the car especially with high heat or cold.

How would that have mattered here? He knew where she was and deliberately left there, it wasn't something he had no "notice" of?

some ideas, car honks if it notices someone in the car and the heat is above 80 in the car, the ac turns on and car starts honking etc lots of ideas,

Surely there would be a way of disabling that feature and the dad just would have disabled it.

[Anonymous]

giving him the benefit of the doubt, I think that initially he decided to leave her in the car because she was sleeping, and then when he got inside that is when he forgot about her.

I think if he had continued to remember that she was napping, he would have gone out to check on her at least once in the 3 hours.

Maybe she isn’t home normally in the afternoons and so when he got home he started on his afternoon routine and went on autopilot at that point.

I’m surprised the 9 year old didn’t notice something was wrong and ask about her sister, though. I feel like usually oldest daughters in these situations are halfway raising their younger siblings, and at age 9 she would have realized her sister couldn’t be left in the car. Not at all saying she’s in any way responsible I’m just surprised that this happened if the older kids were home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terribly sad. RIP to the little one. Hoping that someday soon there will be a safety feature installed in cars to prevent this.

I have a minivan and one thing I do is open the sliding doors, every single time I park the car, regardless of when or where. It forces me to walk around the whole van and check the car seats, before closing the doors. DH has started doing this too when he drives the van.

Car manufacturers would not have prevented this dad from getting on his Play Station and possibly day drinking. This was a regular pattern of deliberately leaving the kids in the car, not a one off error.

Your kids are luckier with you and DH and your commitment to their safety and well being. This loser was not that.

It's true -- like many I read that Washington Post piece years ago about how many of these cases are often purely accidental deaths due to overtired parents or some change in routine that causes a parent to not realize a child is sleeping in the back seat (e.g. they aren't usually the ones to take the baby to daycare and they fall into the routine of driving to work instead and forget). Safety features on cars that would for instance not allow you to lock the car without looking in the back seat or would play a loud alarm upon getting out of the car if there was a person in the back seat could have saved lives in those cases.

But this dad KNEW he was leaving the child in the car. He did it on purpose. He claims the car normally alerts him when it shuts off (and he claims he left the car on with the AC running) but he lied about other things (like how long the child had been in the car) so who knows. In any case this dad would have just ignored or overridden any alert designed to prevent him from accidentally leaving the child locked in a car on a 109 degree day. That was his goal.

Normally I have so much sympathy for parents in these cases but not in this one. This was child abuse and neglect.

I just can’t for the life of me wrap my mind around why the car on a hot day would be the chosen place to contain her?

Why not put her in her crib with snacks and an iPad? Not saying that is stellar parenting, but he could probably get away neglecting her for a while with screens and goldfish without the risk of heat death.

He was not only a lazy crap parent, but an incredibly stupid one.

the child probably fell asleep in the car and he didn't want to move her, this happened to me a lot as a parent with kids that age, however i would sit in the car of course there would be a risk i fell asleep as i was tired from keeping up with a young child let alone multiple. I truly believe cars should be required to solve this issue of being left in a hot car, tesla has done a great job and it should be a law to ensure cars notify and alert if someone is in the car especially with high heat or cold.

How would that have mattered here? He knew where she was and deliberately left there, it wasn't something he had no "notice" of?

some ideas, car honks if it notices someone in the car and the heat is above 80 in the car, the ac turns on and car starts honking etc lots of ideas,

Surely there would be a way of disabling that feature and the dad just would have disabled it.

+1. This is willful neglect. And I’m so sick of people referencing that dumb Weingarten article. It was written 15 years ago by a random guy, basically said “don’t blame crappy parents for being crappy or fatally preoccupied” and offered no meaningful, actionable solutions to said crappy parenting as is proven by the fact that this still happens with the same frequency as it did then.

[Anonymous]

I used to leave my kids a lot in the car when they were sleeping.

But, never when it was hot. I just rolled down the windows and sat beside the car, reading in a lawn chair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to leave my kids a lot in the car when they were sleeping.

But, never when it was hot. I just rolled down the windows and sat beside the car, reading in a lawn chair.

My sister does this too. She pulls into the garage, rolls the windows down and makes personal phone calls to catch up with people. Somehow the talking doesn’t wake my nephew but moving him would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:giving him the benefit of the doubt, I think that initially he decided to leave her in the car because she was sleeping, and then when he got inside that is when he forgot about her.

I think if he had continued to remember that she was napping, he would have gone out to check on her at least once in the 3 hours.

Maybe she isn’t home normally in the afternoons and so when he got home he started on his afternoon routine and went on autopilot at that point.

I’m surprised the 9 year old didn’t notice something was wrong and ask about her sister, though. I feel like usually oldest daughters in these situations are halfway raising their younger siblings, and at age 9 she would have realized her sister couldn’t be left in the car. Not at all saying she’s in any way responsible I’m just surprised that this happened if the older kids were home.

OMG - Why should a 9 year old girl
Be more responsible for her siblings than their own father is?

Dad should have ALSO been watching out for the 9 year old.