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Baby found dead in vehicle (left all day in a minivan)
Grand Forks Herald ^ | June 29, 2006 | Lisa Gibson

Posted on 06/29/2006 8:59:40 AM PDT by charming_harmonica

A 5-month-old baby died in a minivan Wednesday after the mother apparently forgot to drop the child off at day care.

The tragedy was discovered about 5:30 p.m. outside the Wonder Years 2 day care. The baby's mother stopped at the day care after work to pick up the child and was told by staff that the baby had not been dropped off. She realized then that the baby had been in her minivan all day.

"The mother had forgotten to drop off the child at day care in the morning," said Curt Kreun, owner of Wonder Years 2. "She actually came in the building to pick up the child and then realized what had happened."

The child was in a car seat in the back of the vehicle, according to Sgt. Jeff Burgess of the Grand Forks Police Department. A Wonder Years 2 staff member made the 911 call, according to Kreun.

Staff members had taken the baby out of the van and started CPR before the ambulance arrived. Kreun said he reached the scene about 6 p.m. and emergency personnel already had gotten the word from Altru to cease resuscitation.

"The child had probably passed away a while before she got to the day care," Kreun said.

Kreun, who has been in the child care business for years, said near-tragedies happen all too often.

"I know people who have gotten to work and realized they forgot to drop off their kids and had to go back."

Kreun said it would have been impossible for passersby to see the baby in the van, which had tinted windows.

"I walked around that van about 14 times after they left, and you would not have been able to see in there," he said.

The incident is under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Bureau, but police told Kreun they didn't expect charges to be filed.

"They're looking at it as a tragic accident," he said. "This is by far the most devastating thing I've had to witness."

"There are no arrests being made tonight," said Burgess. "I can tell you that."

The cause of death had not yet been confirmed Wednesday night, but a likely cause of death in cases where children are left in hot vehicles is hyperthermia.

The temperature in a parked car rises very rapidly, even when the windows are left open a crack. Studies show that the temperature can rise as much as 50 degrees in an hour.

Wednesday's high was 79 degrees, so the temperature in the van easily could have exceeded 100 degrees.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; US: North Dakota
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To: sportutegrl

Precisely. When they unbuckle the kid, or they take the bucket out of the cradle, then the system disarms.


221 posted on 06/29/2006 1:30:24 PM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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To: absolootezer0

Vehicles with a switch for airbags are only 2 seater cars/trucks.

My mini-van (Honda Odyssey) does not and we bought it last year.


222 posted on 06/29/2006 1:32:00 PM PDT by luckystarmom
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To: linda_22003
As a kid of the late '50s, everyone my age grew up rocketing around the car like a BB in an empty coffee can, not strapped in like we were astronauts on a space launch. If we died in the car it was from the force of an accident, but never from being left behind!

LMAO-thanks for the image. Things were the same for us in the '60s. I don't remember regularly wearing a seat belt until the late '80s when the Navy started making us wear them when we were driving government vehicles.

223 posted on 06/29/2006 1:45:30 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY (Twenty years in the Navy. Never drunk on duty - never sober on liberty)
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To: luckystarmom

i'm not sure what all have them now. i know my jeep and my dad's trailblazer both have sensors that turn off airbags.


224 posted on 06/29/2006 1:47:54 PM PDT by absolootezer0 ("My God, why have you forsaken us.. no wait, its the liberals that have forsaken you... my bad")
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To: charming_harmonica

This happens in Phoenix every year, where the temp inside a parked car reaches over 150 degrees. Sad, scary stuff.


225 posted on 06/29/2006 1:52:33 PM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion (Pray for our President and for our heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and around the world!)
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To: sportutegrl

Not sure that would work. Most people leave car seats in the car and just take out baby.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I think you just hit upon the answer.

If the child restraint is 'Buckled', then you could not take the keys out of the ignition.

After saying WTF for a few seconds and getting really $issed at the auto manufacturer, it would dawn on you to check on the child. (Or you would still not be able to get the key out of the ignition.)

If the Child's restraint is 'UnBuckled' then it would not have any effect on your ability to remove the ignition key as usual.

Remember you heard it here first.

When you get a patent, I want my 10 % of gross sales.


226 posted on 06/29/2006 2:04:58 PM PDT by omronnie (The Fourth Estate is a Fifth Column, Peacefull Islam the Sixth, and Murtha/Hildabeast the seventh)
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To: GATOR NAVY

It's true! As a child, my favorite way to ride in the car was on the floor of the front passenger seat, and I'd go to sleep with my head in my mother's lap.

Several years ago, I read about a study which suggested that people "compensate" for all the safety additions in their cars by driving more recklessly, usually not conscious that they are doing this. The author suggested that the one thing in a car that would guarantee safe driving would be a spike in the middle of the steering wheel, pointed at the center of the driver's chest.


227 posted on 06/29/2006 2:09:57 PM PDT by linda_22003
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To: OldFriend

They must have had working mothers; we've seen demonstrated here that that's what causes it.


228 posted on 06/29/2006 2:10:47 PM PDT by linda_22003
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To: RinaseaofDs

Interesting idea, but I think you'll find that it's way too expensive. You would need standardization from the car seat manufacturers AND the auto manufacturers, and it would require adding electronics to both devices AND a mechanical interrupt to the buckle on the carseat. It's an interesting idea, but the cost would be prohibitive.


229 posted on 06/29/2006 2:24:26 PM PDT by Arthalion
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To: omronnie

Lol, there's a small problem with that idea too. The interrupt that prevents key withdrawal on modern cars is entirely mechanical. Your function would require redesigning the key-ignition systems on every car to function electronically. The auto manufacturers would fight that vigorously.


230 posted on 06/29/2006 2:26:18 PM PDT by Arthalion
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To: Gone GF

One day when my kids were very little, I had run out of the house to run errands. My husband was in charge. He thought the kids were okay, so he took a shower.

My charming twin daughters unlocked the door and ran out of the house. We lived near a fairly busy road, and my daughters were running down the street toward that very busy road.

Thank God, a neighbor found them before they reached the street and brought them home.


231 posted on 06/29/2006 2:35:47 PM PDT by luckystarmom
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To: visualops

I just became more cautious after I had kids because it wasn't just me I was responsible for anymore.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thank You. Another thought just entered my mind.

I'm getting a little 'Long in the Tooth'
(Getting on in years!) and it is absolutely conceivable,
(i before e, except after c), that I could forget a child that was entrusted into my care 'For the Weekend'.

So, I propose, that in addition to the fact that the ignition key could not be removed from the ignition if the child seat was 'Buckled', that the car horn would do a 'Honk - Honk - Honk' sound until it dawned on me that I had a child in the back seat !!

I still want my 10% on any future Patents, regarding this, in the United States of America (aka USA, the Great Satan, Hate America First, et al) or world wide.

Yes, China, Mexico, and any other 'Grey Market Area', this means YOU !!!


232 posted on 06/29/2006 2:38:04 PM PDT by omronnie (The Fourth Estate is a Fifth Column, Peacefull Islam the Sixth, and Murtha/Hildabeast the seventh)
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To: absolootezer0

When my kids were little, we tried finding a family car that you could turn the airbag off. We had 3 kids in carseats, and most cars couldn't handle 3 carseats in the back. We wanted to put one kid in the front and 2 in the back.

My husband and I asked how to get the airbags turned off. I think we looked on the web, but this was 10 years ago.

I don't know why they just don't put a switch on all cars with airbags. It's an easy thing to do.


233 posted on 06/29/2006 2:39:26 PM PDT by luckystarmom
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To: twigs
Then why did he create us in the first place if He was going to live our lives for us?

I think your question is valid for adults, but not for babies who are totally helpless. The mother and child are two separate human beings with two separate souls. The mother is responsible for her actions and must live with the consequences. But the baby neverhad a chance and doesn't have a life anymore.

I can understand the premise that the Lord would not interfere in the free will of the adult, but at 5 months no one can argue that the baby had any opportunity to exercise free will. So did the Lord want the baby to die? Or does He simply not involve Himself in our affairs? Or does He not exist at all?

If we assume the Lord gave the child life, why snatch it away so soon and in such a horrible way? Admittedly, there really are no answers, only faith.

234 posted on 06/29/2006 2:43:16 PM PDT by Wolfstar (Where you go with me, heaven will always be.)
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To: reagan_fanatic
There is no satisfactory answer to your question...

Thank you for your honesty.

235 posted on 06/29/2006 2:44:40 PM PDT by Wolfstar (Where you go with me, heaven will always be.)
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To: charming_harmonica
It seems more of this is happening since the babies must be in the back seat instead of up front where the parent can see them.

Does anyone have statistics on why the back seat is necessary? It's supposed to save lives - yet more babies seem to be forgotten and dying.

This is not to excuse negligent parents! I can't imagine forgetting a baby in a car - but there is positive proof that it is happening.

236 posted on 06/29/2006 2:46:53 PM PDT by LADY J
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To: LADY J

Airbags were killing infants who were in front seat carseats when their mothers just had rearend collisions, because American airbags were designed to control a 180 pound person moving in the forward direction at sixty miles an hour without a seatbelt.

The explosive deployment of such airbags were decapitating or snapping the necks of infants.

64 of them died in the year that I met the mother of one such baby, back in the '90s.


237 posted on 06/29/2006 2:54:28 PM PDT by maica (Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle --Abraham Lincoln)
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To: maica
"64 of them died in the year that I met the mother of one such baby, back in the '90s."

Any stats on how many died from being forgotten in the back seat?

238 posted on 06/29/2006 3:01:13 PM PDT by LADY J
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To: luckystarmom

Actually my husband's crew cab truck has an airbag off switch. He can turn it off when he puts our son in the front seat, but what about state laws that say kids have to be in the back?


239 posted on 06/29/2006 3:02:48 PM PDT by sportutegrl (People who say, "All I know is . . ." really mean, "All I want you to focus on is . . .")
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To: linda_22003
As a kid of the late '50s, everyone my age grew up rocketing around the car like a BB in an empty coffee can, not strapped in like we were astronauts on a space launch. If we died in the car it was from the force of an accident, but never from being left behind!

LOL - I remember those days. I was a little kid in the '60s, and my parents had a 1967 Chevy Bel-Air station wagon with the shifter on the column.

One day, we had loaded up the car for our vacation trip to Yellowstone Park in Wyoming. My sister and I were horsing around in the front seat (no seatbelts of course) when my sister lost her balance and fell back into the shift handle, pushing it up into park while we were moving at about 50mph. The rear tires locked up and we all went into the dash and windshield.

I've never heard a transmission make a grinding, scraping sound quite like that since, and I learned that day just what a colorful vocabulary my Dad really had.
240 posted on 06/29/2006 3:11:24 PM PDT by reagan_fanatic (Man was made in the image of God, not pond scum)
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