Posted on 08/13/2002 8:54:06 AM PDT by Temple Owl
Posted on Tue, Aug. 13, 2002
Girl, 2, dies after being left in a car for nearly 8 hours
Her grandfather forgot to take Sasha Fogle to her sitter, police said. The car topped 100 degrees.
By Barbara Boyer and Thomas J. Gibbons Jr.
Inquirer Staff Writers
On one of the hottest days of the year, a toddler died yesterday after being accidentally left by her grandfather in a car for nearly eight hours in Southwest Philadelphia.
Sasha Fogle, 2, was stranded in the back of a 2001 Ford Taurus when her grandfather, Calvin Howell, 54, forgot to take her to her baby-sitter's home as he normally did each day, said Capt. Thomas Lippo of the police Homicide Division.
The temperature reached 96 degrees yesterday. The sun beating down on the Taurus sent the car temperature well above 100, authorities said, which apparently caused the girl's death.
About 2:30 p.m., after he had driven home from work without realizing the heat-stricken child was in the backseat, Howell found the toddler unconscious in the car. He had parked across the street from the family's rowhouse in the 1900 block of South Ithan Street. He then called 911, and the girl was pronounced dead at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia shortly before 3 p.m.
"We're going on the assumption it's an accident," Lippo said. He said that the investigation was continuing and that it would be up to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office to decide whether to file criminal charges.
At the home, relatives and friends hugged one another and cried outside. Police draped yellow crime-scene tape around the house and the white Taurus. Shortly after 8 p.m., a police tow truck removed the car.
Lippo said that at 6:40 every morning, Howell drove his wife, Janice Fogle, 48, and their daughter, Ayesha Fogle, 25, to a trolley stop at 58th Street and Baltimore Avenue. Afterward, Lippo said, Howell normally drove Sasha, Ayesha Fogle's child, to stay with the baby-sitter while he went to work.
Yesterday, Lippo said, Howell forgot to stop at the baby-sitter's and went straight to his job. He parked the car in a city sanitation lot at 63d Street and Eastwick Avenue. Howell is listed in city records as a maintenance worker with the city's Streets Department, where the records say he has been employed for 15 years.
It was unclear why no one saw the child in the parked car. Police said they were not sure whether the windows had been partially open while Howell was at work.
Lippo said Howell left work about 1:30 p.m. and stopped on his way home to make an appointment to have maintenance done on his car, all without realizing that Sasha was still in the back. Then he went home, Lippo said, and parked across the street from his house. Shortly afterward, Lippo said, Howell saw Sasha on the floor in the back of the car. Police said there was no car seat, and Lippo said it was unclear whether Sasha had tried to get out of the car.
The family, Lippo said, has been cooperative with authorities. Howell was taken to Police Headquarters in Center City, where he spoke with homicide investigators.
A neighbor who declined to give his name said that Howell and his family had lived in the area for more than a decade and that they were "good people" who worked steadily and left the house together each morning to go to their jobs.
Howell, the neighbor said, always put the child in the back seat before the family left for the day.
-
How awful! Could this have been prevented by having the kid in the front seat?
Half of the people in this country are below average intelligence.
I received some bad news early this AM. This has not been my best day in life.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner! But, you know, heaven forbid that children be carried in the front seat; they might be decapitated by the government mandated airbags deploying...
And that average is pretty doggone low...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.