Jailing parents after tragedy tough call - Baby died after being left in hot car in Texas

The Dallas Morning News ^ | July 11, 2002 | By CURTIS HOWELL / The Dallas Morning News

[splach78]

They have mirrors to see the child you know. You obviously know nothing about the implications of placing an infant in the front seat.

[luvtheconstitution]

Being the cynic I am, her excuse that she "thought she dropped him off at day care" sounds like something manufactured by a defense attorney.

[smith288]

Being the cynic in me, that excuse is proof of her inability to even think in a complete sentence let alone speak one... No excuse would work for me if I was in the jury. Does having 2 kids make me bias and unfit?

[BlueLancer]

"I think that the death of a child is a sufficient deterent. But still some people will make a mistake, be distracted or absentminded. Things happen."

"You should bear in mind that our society recognizes five principal reasons for the sentence of those who violate the law: rehabilitation of the wrongdoer, punishment of the wrongdoer, protection of society from the wrongdoer, preservation of good order and discipline in the military, and deterrence of the wrongdoer and those who know of his/her crime and his/her sentence from committing the same or similar offenses. The weight to be given any or all of these reasons, along with all other sentencing matters in the case, rests solely within your (the jury's) discretion."
(paragraph 2-6-9, Sentencing Instructions, "Military Judge's Benchbook")

Now, I know that we're talking about civilian (as opposed to military) justice here, but deterrence is meant in two ways: individual deterrence, to keep the individual who committed the act from doing it again, and general deterrence, which is done to make others think about what they are going to do before they do it.

I would agree that the death of the child is probably sufficient to deter THIS individual from committing THIS or a similar act in the future. However, it appears that it is going to take something more to deter (or even get the attention of) OTHER individuals, such as convictions and some amount of jail time. If you can be tried and punished for drinking and driving and killing someone (negligent homicide), then I would think that this type of offense would fit that bill as well. In neither case did you intend to kill anyone, but your negligence did cause that to happen. It should be up to a court to decide whether it was simple negiglece or culpable negligence.

Things like this have been happening more and more frequently, at the same time individuals committing these acts have been given handslaps and comforting pats on the back to "ease their pain". It's becoming too easy just to say "ooops".

[GovernmentShrinker]

I don't think so. I think it is a reasonable application of different standards in the cases of harried parents who are WORKING to support their children, and parents who are spending 3 hours getting their hair done without any thought whatsoever of their children. I don't there would be much sympathy or leniency for a rich yuppie mom whose infants died in her hot BMW while she was getting her hair done at a trendy salon.

[Flyer]

she thought she had left the child at day care but later discovered him dead in the car when she went to lunch.

She had already passed off a huge responsibity by putting a 9 month old in day care. If she gets a pass on this what will she have learned? Prosecute.

[Texas Mom]

"Ms. Rueda, who was questioned at length by police, said she thought she had left the child at day care but later discovered him dead in the car when she went to lunch."

I just don't get this. Sorry, but how do you think you did something that would take stopping the car and carrying the baby into a building and not have done it?

[GovernmentShrinker]

People get into a daily routine where their kids are at daycare, and the parents are concentrating on work. A parent of tiny children may be operating on very little sleep, and if the infant is sound asleep in the back seat the parent may "remember" dropping it off at day care as usual, though the memory is actually of a previous day. Memory is weird and unreliable thing, as many serious studies of eyewitness testimony have shown. Companies which employ many parents of young children in day care would do well to allow employees to organize a system where someone takes a trip around the parking lot each morning to check on this (and at larger companies, which have security guards patrolling parking areas, have the guards instructed to check for infants).

[George from New England]

Putting kids in carseats in the backseats is part of the problem.

BINGO.

The forced usage of the back seat due to air bags is the culprit here. Glad someone hit on it.

An infant belongs where a mother can keep her eye on it, front seat next to her, not the back seat.

CAN WE SCREAM IT! GET RID OF THE FRONT SEAT AIR BAG, PUT THE BABY IN THE FRONT.

[GovernmentShrinker]

And the 12 remaining children of that Virginia father would benefit from having him thrown in the slammer, because it would impress upon them the urgent importance of not having huge numbers of children that you can't possible care for properly.

[George from New England]

A car with it's windows half down isn't going to kill kids so quickly if they are somehow left in the car

A car with windows part way down will allow you or others to hear a screaming child too. Never completely close the windows is additional insurance against all sorts of things.

[Texas Mom]

But it does happen more than 180 times nationwide since 1995, said Anara Guard, information director at Boston University School of Public Health.

Could it have something to do with people putting the babies in a carrier and putting them in the back seat, out of sight for safety and then forgetting them because they don't see them?

Parents are told not to put a baby in the front seat but the numbers are growing of babies forgotten in the back seats and left to die in a hot car. Would like to see some numbers of babies lives saves because they were in the back seat, and babies who have died because they were forgotten in the back seats.

Don't know if I am explaining this right.

Maybe if the baby was in the front seat Mom or Dad wouldn't forget them and 'think they dropped them off at the baby sitter.'

Last year there were several deaths and the parent seems to have a common excuse. I forgot he was in the car. Put em up front. In the long run it's safer.

[George from New England]

But an infant should never be in the front seat. Period.

Why?

Before there were mandatory air bags, children were much safer in the front seat.

Put in switches to allow air bags to be disabled.

[hunyb]

Exactly, complacency is no excuse! You must be constantly aware of where your children are especially when they are that young...........a dog can take care of themselves on their own, babies cannot! Period!

[Shryke]

It's time some responsible Democrats stood up and outlawed these deadly weapons! Hot cars should be banned! They aren't what the Constitution intended! One, massively complex, hugel expensive law bainnging all hot cars would solve this catastrophe once and for all.

/sarcasm off

[Texas Mom]

The forced usage of the back seat due to air bags is the culprit here. Glad someone hit on it.

An infant belongs where a mother can keep her eye on it, front seat next to her, not the back seat.

CAN WE SCREAM IT! GET RID OF THE FRONT SEAT AIR BAG, PUT THE BABY IN THE FRONT SEAT.

I hadn't seen your response before I wrote and tried to say the same thing. When did they start pushing this back seat thing? 1995? When airbags were considered the culprit. Isn't it possible to disconnect the airbag?

I know I'm rambling but there has got to be a reason and a solution to this before more babies bake in cars.

[hunyb]

I'm sorry, I cannot!

[smith288]

How about less clueless parents who are taught how to care for their kid. Just a thought.

[Sloth]

I am torn on these sorts of things. I think there should be a penalty, but (even though I don't have children) I can imagine myself being forgetful or getting distracted and having this happen. On the one hand, I wonder if people would forget if they had a billion dollars in cash in the back seat of the car instead of a child -- on the other hand, I know that many people WOULD forget about it if they were in the habit of carting that cash around with them all the time.

[George from New England]

The insurance industry pushed these air bags. I guess they pay out huge sums when adults get injured in the front passenger seat. But when an infant dies there usually is no insurance to be paid out.

Sounds horrible doesn't it, but insurance is a business not a charity!