Posted on 08/13/2013 12:24:06 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
This is that time of year where we, and other news outlets, remind you of the fatal consequences that occur when you leave your kids or pets in hot cars. But two Ohio parents now face charges after their baby died during a hot drive through Oklahoma.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that husband and wife Angela Randolph, 26, and Christopher Randolph, 28, now face charges of child neglect after their 23-day-old daughter died in the back of a car running without air conditioning on a hot day.
The newspaper says the parents were driving in a car packed with their belongings, no working A/C and only one window rolled down from Ohio to Oklahoma last week.
When they stopped at a convenience store in Ardmore, Oklahoma just north of the Texas border, they noticed their baby daughter Hannah wasn't breathing in the back seat. At a 911 dispatcher's urging they tried CPR, but the girl was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a hospital.
Authorities say they believe the girl died of heat exposure from the hot car — that day, temperatures were hovering around 100 degrees, the newspaper reports. The Randolphs were arrested a few days later and charged with child neglect. Sadly, they were just 30 miles away from their destination in Ringling, Oklahoma, where they planned to start a new life with family.
It's a sad and horrible case for sure, and it's an odd twist on the usual situation where the baby is left in the hot car. It just goes to show that an improperly-cooled moving car is just as bad as one left sitting in the sun.
We'll have to see how a jury handles this one.
***Ahh those glorious cross country trips with 100+ air hitting you and your 3-4 siblings (sitting on the bench seat with no seat belts)***
Not to mention Dad’s cigarette smoke choking us!
Ohio Ping
The Columbus Dispatch reports that husband and wife Angela Randolph, 26, and Christopher Randolph, 28, now face charges of child neglect after their 23-day-old daughter died in the back of a car running without air conditioning on a hot day.
The newspaper says the parents were driving in a car packed with their belongings, no working A/C and only one window rolled down from Ohio to Oklahoma last week.
True.
Where was the first reported itty-bity baby Barrack Hussein Obama II sighting again?
Mercer Island WA, wasn't it?
That is a rather important note.
People can be rather dim but when they have a history of neglect then I lean toward charging the parents. However I would have to know what the charges of neglect were, they didn't give little Billy a midnight snack or they regularly didn't feed him.
As an aside when I was three weeks old my parents and grandparents took me across the US in a car with no AC in the middle of summer. Grandpa would fill up a water bottle with tap water and tucked it in behind me. The water kept me cooler and happy.
23 days old, I would think parents would be so much more careful with a baby that young and fragile
Parents should be more careful with an infant. I didn’t even take mine out of the house when they were that young. These are very irresponsible people, I pray that they don’t have any more children.
***Long summer drives were hot, sweaty affairs.***
True! It was also so hot you could not play the radio as the roar from the wind blowing in the windows drowned out all sound. Your ears suffered as a result.
Back in 1968, I left Little Rock on one of the hottest days of the year. I had to take off my shirt, roll down the windows, open the wing windows to get air flow into the cab, then drove 250 miles home.
A decade later, I left Tulsa,OK, with a wife and two children, one an infant, on the hottest day of the year, the AC did not work. Again we rolled down all the windows, opened the wing windows to get air flow into the cab and drove 100 miles home.
They no longer have wing windows on autos.
Now I like my AC in summer!
Beats me. I had a car with a black spray vinyl roof (it came that way, don’t ever do that!) just out of curiosity I got a stick-on thermometer to see how hot it would get.
The thermometer topped out at 150°F. I could leave campus drive with the vents all open, the windows open and the sun roof open and get several miles down the freeway before it dropped low enough to register.
Not prejudices--years of trial and error.
Nor did they have mandatory child seats. Could it be that mom might have been holding her child or at least had the baby up front with them if the seat wasn't mandatory
Cars used to have side vent windows that did a lot to get a flow of air through a hot vehicle.
You had years of being an infant?
Here in Texas I often read where parents who “forget” their child and leave it to die inside a locked car are usually charged with negligent homicide.
Adding salt to the wound? Already I’ve been called a vindictive monster on this thread because I see this as not only a necessary charge for child neglect, but it sends a message to others and therefore - has saved the lives of other newborns.
“To include the 1960s and 1970s”
Cars in those days had more shade from the roof.
Today’s ‘fuel efficient’, streamlined cars have more glass, and less shade. Thus, they are hotter (with no AC).
I cite my ‘53 Chev with a 2003 Dodge PU for example.
And there is the fact that their 15-month-old survived.
These are ignorant, poor hillbillies, now charged with 2nd degree because they are white trash who had a previous interaction with Child Protective Services in Ohio back in 2010.
I was a late bloomer, LOL!
But seriously, folks. My experience is one of surviving in the Arizona heat without air conditioning. Windows down is much, much cooler than windows up. Still, I would not subject an infant to what I had to endure. When we traveled with infants, we traveled at night in air conditioned vehicles.
Maybe there’s something funny about the parents’ story.
But also 23 days old - we’re not talking about a 5 year old here. We’re talking about a 23 day old infant. So the usual “Ah - we did that back in the day” arguments don’t apply. Chances are you didn’t do that at 23 days of age and if you did you sure as heck don’t remember doing it.
Brand new babies really aren’t to be toted around like luggage - need to wait a little while to do that :)
Yes, seriously folks, if you must travel with an infant, remember that they are not just a miniature adult and they need extra attention and care.
Even if they are quiet.
Reportedly, only one window in this couple's Scheißebox would roll down.
Explain the difference between negligence and intentional homicide. How do you prove stupidity is only connected with negligence.
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