Posted on 07/29/2002 4:14:36 AM PDT by chance33_98
Child Left In Family Mini-Van Dies
LEHIGH ACRES, July 28, 2002 — A toddler left in the family mini-van during the hottest part of the day is dead. When the Lehigh Acres family got home from church Sunday, no one accounted for young Daniel McCrary. After sitting in the vehicle for as much as six hours, the 23-month-old was dead.
The temperature was reportedly in the mid-90s during the afternoon in Lehigh Acres. A 90-degree day may not seem that hot but inside a closed car that temperature becomes extreme. In less than 10 minutes the car can reach 100 degrees. In a half hour it bakes at 120 Degrees, according to research by General Motors.
When Lee County sheriff’s deputies and emergency crews arrived at the 4117 7th Street West home, the boy was already dead. Deputies said a 911 call came from the home at 6:12 that evening.
Neighbor William Walrond saw father David McCrary remove his youngest son and take him into the family’s home.
“The daughter screamed like you would normally hear in a horror movie,” he described. “I looked around to see him carrying the baby boy inside.”
After a morning service at church, the McCrarys went home and took a nap, investigators said. It wasn’t until they were getting ready for an evening service that they discovered baby Daniel was missing.
The family told investigators that the baby was in the family’s purple mini-van the entire time.
The family did not tell investigators who was in charge of the boy.
“That will all be part of the investigation,” said Kim Swanson, the spokesperson for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
A second neighbor, Dennis Smith, told investigators he believed the boy was still alive when he saw the father with him.
“I heard the baby screaming and he went right in the house after he said, ‘How could you have done that?’” he said.
Smith said David McCrary had yelled that to one of his daughters.
Daniel was the youngest of five children. The other four, deputies say, are ages 14, 12, 9, and 5. They were removed from the house. Deputies would not comment on where the children were taken.
Neighbors said grandparents live in the area.
The Department of Children and Families routinely remove siblings from a household when there is a suspicious death or possible negligence of a child until an investigation is complete.
The children were seen taken away in a deputy’s car.
Investigators also removed the mini-van from McCrary front yard.
Many questions still remain. ABC7 News will continue coverage of this story Monday. Check for updates on abc-7.com and watch ABC7 News for further updates.
Heat-related deaths high Despite annual warnings to parents and caregivers that leaving kids unattended in hot cars can have tragic consequences, at least 30 more children died last year of hyperthermia, according to a recent poll by Roper ASW and based on interviews with 700 families with children under age 18.
The poll also revealed that while more parents are locking their vehicles at home (58 percent vs. 50 percent in 1999), one in five parents rarely or never locks their vehicle, the same number reported three years ago.
The good news is that the number of adults polled who said that it is never acceptable to leave a child unattended in a vehicle increased significantly, from 75 percent in 1999 to 87 percent this year.
The margin of error of the poll is plus or minus 3.5 percent.
Officers found the car idling in the middle of the road and noticed a 7-month-old girl crying in her car seat, he said. Pronga, of Hialeah, was charged with driving under the influence and felony child neglect. The department fired her. She was released on $12,000 bail.
Pronga's telephone number is not published. Information on her lawyer isn't immediately available. Pronga was arrested and charged for driving under the influence in 1993 and had her license suspended, criminal records show. She was a DCF caseworker whose job was to transport children. Charles Auslander, the DCF's Miami administrator, said his department was unaware of Pronga's previous arrest. He said he was told by administrators that Pronga did not have any duty to report her prior arrest.
Pronga had taken the child from her foster home Thursday to visit the baby's natural mother, DCF spokesman Miguel Milanes said. Pronga never arrived at the home of the mother, who called police. The girl was returned to her foster parents.
How do you "forget" an infant for SIX HOURS!!!
IF THE NATION HAD DELIBERATELY DESIGNED A SYSTEM THAT WOULD FRUSTRATE THE PROFESSIONALS WHO STAFF IT, ANGER THE PUBLIC WHO FINANCE IT AND ABANDON THE CHILDREN WHO DEPEND ON IT, IT COULD NOT HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB THAN THE PRESENT CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM.
-- National Commission on Children
LIFTING THE VEIL -- A Critical Look at the Child Welfare System
Not sure why Rick has not updated the site recently, but there is some good info there.
My personal goal is to get rid of the investigative role that CPS takes and turn it over to local law enforcement authorities. Parents who abuse and neglect their children should be tried in a criminal court of law, not a kangaroo CPS court (most cases are considered "civil" cases and the parent has no right to face their accuser nor be afforded legal counsel). If found guilty, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, in fact I am for making the criminal penalties stiffer. I am also for stiffening the penalty for false reports, which should be treated just as any false police report. CPS's involvement should only be to place children who are truly abused and neglected into safe homes. Divesting CPS of investigative duties would provide insurance to parents against false accusations and free up the agency (which constantly blames their mistakes on work overload)to find truly abused children safe havens.
Please don't tell me this father is blaming a 12 or 14-year-old girl for the baby's death, when it's clearly the parents' responsibility to make sure all kids are safe and accounted for (before, not after, taking a post-church service nap)!
We recently had relatives over and they have a 4 year old and a 18 month old. Even though my wife and I have no kids yet, we would be checking out the situation when even 2-3 minutes passed without some sounds. One of us would immediately ask out loud, "Where's Samuel?" - even though it wasn't even our child!
Six hours? How hard would it have been to take turns napping? How hard would it have been to make sure they had proper accountability prior to sleeping? It is a wonder this family has not lost other children while they were growing up.
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