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Parents Charged After Baby Dies In Hot Moving Car With No A/C
Jalopnik ^ | 08/12/2013 | Patrick George

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.


TOPICS: Local News
KEYWORDS: childneglect
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To: Chickensoup

2 Things. Then I’ll leave you alone.

1. This thread is a sunday school picnic compared to many you can find with us vindictive monster FReepers tearing into others.

2. Having said that - I apologize for my comments that added to the “lack of class and poor caliber”.


81 posted on 08/13/2013 1:38:00 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: null and void

I’m sorry. I meant #69 and #71.


82 posted on 08/13/2013 1:39:24 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (People are idiots.)
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To: discostu
The kid died and all you can do is call for the blood of the parents.

If they had all they owned in that car, they weren't rich. They were going somewhere else to try to build a new life.

The law requires them to have the kid in back, in a car seat. They complied with the law.

The effing law, which has replaced common sense, got that kid killed.

These are new parents who just might not know enough to pay attention to the baby--not one of our kids came with a manual.

Maybe it fussed, maybe it didn't and just quietly died of heatstroke.

That's enough tragedy for most folks, but NOOOOOO. You and others like you would send them to prison on top of it.

Maybe you can all drive them to commit suicide or go nuts and then you'd be really happy.

83 posted on 08/13/2013 1:39:40 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: null and void; Jeff Chandler

Yes - Zaztso.

Look at his post 71 and his heated up burritos on the dashboard.

You can’t get much more scientifically advanced than that, now can ya?

(Sorry Jeff. Had to lol at your expense.)


84 posted on 08/13/2013 1:40:45 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: varmintman

I’ve had the same experience with motorcycles. The flaw in your theory is the fact that on a motorcycle, the windows are always rolled down.


85 posted on 08/13/2013 1:41:00 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (People are idiots.)
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To: Responsibility2nd; null and void
his heated up burritos on the dashboard.

Burnt the damn thing that day it got up to 122F in Phoenix.

86 posted on 08/13/2013 1:43:05 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (People are idiots.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

They didn’t take newborns out in the heat of the day. Used to be babies stayed at home their first 6 weeks.


87 posted on 08/13/2013 1:43:10 PM PDT by luckystarmom
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To: South40
The law does not allow parents to leave a child in the back seat of that hot car unchecked, a set of circumstances that clearly contributed to the young one's death.

That statement assumes neglect unsubstantiated by the information in the article. According to the article the vehicle was in motion.

The law does not allow parents can put their kids in the back seat of a hot car, a car that was so "packed with their belongings" that there was little to no air circulation.

What State allows an infant to be in the front seat?, even in a baby carrier?

Airbags can be lethal under those circumstances. The law mandates that the child be in back.

The law does not allow for the child to be up front, where the mother or father (whomever was not driving) could readily assess the child's distress.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

88 posted on 08/13/2013 1:46:49 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: null and void
Yep, your mom held you in her arms while dad drove.

I hear ya. And we slept in the back without seat belts, too, when we were older. My brothers and I somehow managed to survive.

In the car seat era parents just need to take more breaks for baby maintenance. They need to eat and drink more often than we do and changing diapers makes the "atmosphere" more pleasant - especially in a car with no air conditioning.

89 posted on 08/13/2013 1:47:23 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Responsibility2nd
Again, people have been driving, with infants in tow, for many decades through states hotter than Oklahoma. My contention is that this isn't the result of heat building up in a car. Otherwise, it would have been unbearable for the adults who were inside as well.

Either there was some underlying health issue with the baby, or there is foul play other than neglect involved.

90 posted on 08/13/2013 1:47:40 PM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: GeronL

I agree that we who grew up without a/c were more acclimated but this was a 23 day old infant. I’m betting they stopped for something lunch/gas and left the baby in the car.


91 posted on 08/13/2013 1:52:04 PM PDT by Ditter
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To: fwdude

Welcome back to the tread. I can’t believe you think a 23 day old can handle heat stress the same as an adult.

I’d call your attention to other replies in this thread that prove you wrong. I’d even go and grab some links that medically prove a 23 day old is unable to regulate extreme heat conditions, but what for?

Your mind appears made up.


92 posted on 08/13/2013 1:53:51 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: cripplecreek

You would use a/c if you lived down here in Texas.


93 posted on 08/13/2013 1:53:57 PM PDT by Ditter
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To: ClearBlueSky
Then I heard someone on tv say that you should put ‘something important to you that you won’t forget’ in the back seat with the baby, so you won’t forget your child!

I think I'm going to be sick....

94 posted on 08/13/2013 1:55:10 PM PDT by FrdmLvr
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To: Responsibility2nd
Your mind appears made up.

Pot, meet kettle.

95 posted on 08/13/2013 1:56:47 PM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

The kid died because the parents screwed up. They let the kid die, it’s their fault, they broke the law and allowed the death to occur.

The effing law doesn’t say they can’t have an adult back there with the kid. It says the kid has to be in a seat in the back. The fact that they didn’t bother to pay attention is their fault. The law didn’t get the kid killed. Notice these two have had kids taken away because of neglect before. Important word that, neglect, because that’s exactly the appropriate charge here, negligent homicide, their neglect caused death.

They weren’t new parents, they’d had kids before, kids taken away. And ignorance of basic reality is no excuse.

They killed their child. Period. If that’s not enough to send somebody to jail then nothing is.


96 posted on 08/13/2013 1:58:49 PM PDT by discostu (Go do the voodoo that you do so well.)
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To: Responsibility2nd
I wonder IF (big IF) the parents checked on her, and since she wasn’t sweating, they figured she was OK fine.

I saw a guy do that with his teeny-bopper daughter in a sauna.

97 posted on 08/13/2013 1:59:58 PM PDT by null and void (Frequent terrorist attacks OR endless government snooping and oppression? Soon we'll have both!)
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To: Smokin' Joe
That statement assumes neglect unsubstantiated by the information in the article. According to the article the vehicle was in motion.

Not at all. Unless you believe the child died suddenly and not the slow, protracted death that is common with heat stroke.

What State allows an infant to be in the front seat?, even in a baby carrier?

Please show me where I ever said one does. You can't because I didn't. I didn't even say that in the text you quoted. I said they cannot leave the child in the back seat of a car "packed with belongings", a car so "packed" that it obviously lacked proper air circulation, thus, there is a dead child. Do you believe they should be allowed to do so?

What State allows an infant to be in the front seat?, even in a baby carrier?

Again, I never said any state allows that nor did I even infer it. A friend of the circular argument, are you?

Airbags can be lethal under those circumstances. The law mandates that the child be in back.

You're stating the obvious with comments that are both non-responsive and irrelevant to what I have said. If you're still confused, allow me to clarify. I never said the child should have been in the front seat of the car. I never said any of the 50 states allow that a child seat be used in the front seat. What I did say was that the parents cannot put the child in danger by putting it in a cluttered backseat that has no air circulation.

The law does not allow for the child to be up front, where the mother or father (whomever was not driving) could readily assess the child's distress.

Again, a completely non-responsive and irrelevant comment that has zero to do with anything I have written.

98 posted on 08/13/2013 2:01:10 PM PDT by South40
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To: Jeff Chandler; Sherman Logan

Yeah, well, 72 was a better explanation, but didn’t agree with your prejudices, I wondered why you cited it...


99 posted on 08/13/2013 2:03:55 PM PDT by null and void (Frequent terrorist attacks OR endless government snooping and oppression? Soon we'll have both!)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

***What on earth did people do in the past when cars didn’t have a/c ?**

They would roll down the windows, then turn the wing windows and flood the car with air from outside.

Opps, wing windows are no longer placed on cars. Neither are mechanical outside air vents.

Wonder how all families survived till the 1970s without AC.


100 posted on 08/13/2013 2:04:32 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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