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.
Can you really not see another remedy for this other than to tie the child to the roof? Why couldn't they have taken common sense precautions to protect their daughter by checking on her regularly? Why couldn't they have taken common sense precautions to protect her by having one parent ride in the back seat with her? Why couldn't they have taken common sense precautions to protect her by not packing belongings so tightly around her that there was not proper air circulation? How about just roll down more windows? Do you really not see any sensible way for these parents to have protected their child? As others in this thread have already stated, they have driven through similar heat w/o air conditioning but realized the danger(s) so they checked on their child regularly to ensure it was not overheating. These parents did none of the above so they are responsible for this child's death.
They spawned humans not useless primadanas!
I can't say what the parents did from the article. From the description of having belongings packed around the child, it sounds as if they had everything they owned in the car. If only one window worked, and there was no A/C, I'd say it likely wasn't much of a car--just enough to get them down the road. The article said that they were going to start a new life at their destination, so it is likely they were making the move with family and what they could carry in one car.
Long ago I did something similar, only I was still single. If the car was a two-door, (likely because on a 4-door the chance of having two working windows is better), they had to put the stuff in back because an adult would not have been able to work the seat and have stuff in it--and be unable to get out in an emergency. There is the added detraction of having things shift into the driver. That may have blocked airflow from the only window which worked as well.
You don't have many options when you are poor and you make the best decisions you know how. A small oversight can have disastrous consequences.
My bet is that they did not realize the baby was in trouble until it was too late.
Should they be incarcerated, have their family broken up, do jail time on top of losing a child?
Being poor sucks. Been there, done that.
Neither of us can see into their hearts, tell whether they feel grief over the loss of that child. Without information otherwise, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and consider there to be an absence of malice.
There is no shortage of people calling for heads on pikes, but I won't join them without evidence that they intended for that baby to die. It won't bring that child back.
YMMV
Oh here we go. The ‘monsters’ are these parents who treat their children like inanimate property. Imagine a well dressed, highly educated parent ‘forgetting’ to give a child needed medicine-and the child dies. Or those same parents ‘forgetting’ a baby in the crib, going to work, and the house burns down. NEGLECT is NEGLECT. And when it results in DEATH, it’s NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE.
Do we feel so sorry for the parents that we don’t arrest parents who just plain don’t feed their kids, let them live in filth and deny them health care? In those cases the children LIVE, yet the parents get prosecuted. If you child suffers because of your neglect, you are arrested. If it dies because of it, you’re pitied? Explain the difference to me.
On that we can agree. But the reason they did not realize the baby was in trouble was because they did not bother to check. Heat stroke sufficient to cause death does not happen suddenly. Had they put forth any effort to check on the child periodically their child would still be alive. But they didn't, and that was negligence, negligence that led to the child's death. Not knowing any better is no defense. They should be prosecuted.
Lets say a cash strapped family embarks on a road trip in a car which isn't well maintained. The car might have worn out brakes, bald tires, or under inflated tires. If a death of a child results from this deficiency, should the parents be charged?
Well, I think if we are going to charge either parent or grandparents with negligent homicide we are first going to have to pass a law saying that consensual sex is forbidden amongst stupid people that have not been neutered.
I don’t think it is normal to expect that a couple of stupid fools would know that newborn infants cannot withstand heat stress. Nor would I expect they would know what the physical signs of heat stress are in an infant or the proper way to cool the child without over cooling it.
No. Got any more apples and oranges analogies?
The baby is (appears to be) sleeping...
How do you know they didn't check? How do you know what they thought? Were you there?
You are a real piece of work. No presumption of innocence with you. So you would compound the tragic loss of a child with criminal charges.
Lovely. And now we know how we ended up with the statist mess we have now.
People demanded it.
As you judge, so shall ye be judged.
You obviously know little to nothing about heat stroke. Here's a clue...it's a violent death; you don't just go to sleep. So no, I wasn't there, but I do know that had the parents checked on their child they would have discovered obvious signs that she was in distress.
You are a real piece of work. No presumption of innocence with you. So you would compound the tragic loss of a child with criminal charges.
Your opinion of me is irreverent. I can't imagine why you would think it was. And your argument that punishing negligent parents who are responsible for their child's death reveals more about your warped mind than anything else you have written. Employing that tortured logic one could also say punishing these parents would "compound the tragic loss of a child with criminal charges." But you're entitled to your opinion, warped as it might be.
Lovely. And now we know how we ended up with the statist mess we have now.
This issue is about crime not politics. But given our obvious lack of reasoning I can understand why you would fail to differentiate between the two. So be it.
People demanded it. As you judge, so shall ye be judged.
Are you drunk? You sure come across as being so. I have never caused the death of a child but should I ever do so I would deserve to be judged, not given a pass because punishing me might "compound the tragic loss of a child with criminal charges".
Have a nice night. I'm done participating in your circular argument. Bye.
What does it matter to you?
Well there is a big difference between accidental death and death from purposeful neglect.
If you cannot tell the difference you are the world’s biggest drama queen.
Before car AC we went camping out west. The Texas panhandle was hell on earth...with open windows the air was like a blast furnace. It was 110 that day. When we stopped at a gas station, the attendent said we should have been there last week, it was really hot....land was flat and the heat raising off the ground distored homes off in the distance. Texas down my the gulf is nice, but the panhandle sucks big time...back in the 60’s....
The people on this thread would never forgive themselves if they inadvertently caused their child harm. But everyone is not like that and that seems to be something many do not grasp.
I don't have any details to backup up my theory, but I highly suspect bad driving and lousy vehicle maintenance cause more infant deaths than leaving them unintended in a vehicle.
I've been dirt-floor poor, driven long distances in a car which was ready for the crusher--because I had no choice. No children were aboard.
I'd bet these people were in more dire straits than I was.
I am aghast at the willingness of people who have only a newspaper description of something to appoint themselves judge and jury, with or without facts. A twist of phrase can make someone appear a hero or a monster and you are lapping that up.
My arguments aren't circular, and for all we know the child (quietly) had a metabolic stroke from electrolyte loss. No autopsy data, either.
Did these people leave their child in a car overnight? Nope. So much for your straw man.
If the issue is about crime, then how about a presumption of innocence?
We drove around with our kids and they didn't die.
If you have to ask.....
Sorry but that’s just stupid. How could we NOT expect parent to say “it’s 100 degrees, we should be extra cautious with the kid, keeping them cool and hydrated”? I don’t even like kids and I could figure that one out.
Consider yourself lucky that you have not met some of the brain dead teenagers and young people that I have. People that make you shudder when you think that they are capable of breeding more of their kind.
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