Posted on 07/13/2003 12:28:15 PM PDT by chance33_98
Leaving baby in truck "a terrible mistake"
07/12/2003
By L. Anne Newell / Arizona Daily Star
TUCSON -- A Tucson husband and wife who left their 4-month-old son in their truck for at least an hour while they lunched are loving parents who made a mistake, their lawyer said Friday.
"What happened here was a terrible mistake that, believe it or not, can happen," Stephen M. Weiss said. "As far as we're concerned, there was no criminal conduct."
But officials - including Oro Valley police who charged Daniel Popson, 35, and Suzanne Popson, 28, with felony counts of child abuse - disagree.
"I think they're very fortunate it didn't turn out to be a fatal incident," said Becky Mendez, a spokeswoman for the Oro Valley Police Department.
Officials also said the incident was especially worrisome coming so soon after another Tucson woman left her child in a hot car so long that she died.
"We are seeing tragedies we don't have to see," said Mary Judge Ryan, chief deputy Pima County attorney. "There is no excuse for people ignoring their parental duties and forgetting their children. It's child abuse."
The Popsons, of the 2000 block of East Quiet Canyon Drive, were booked into the Pima County jail and released. Each could face two to nearly nine years in prison.
Weiss gave this account of the incident:
The Popsons - who own Popson Homes Inc., a custom building company that has put up a handful of high-end homes in the past few years - went to an Oro Valley restaurant at noon Tuesday to have lunch with their business manager.
After about an hour, as they received the bill, Suzanne Popson realized they'd left their son in his car seat in the back seat of the truck. The temperature climbed from 99 degrees at noon to 102 degrees at 1 p.m.
She jumped up and ran out. Her husband followed as he realized what had happened. The business manager, who holds a position in the couple's church, followed and soon ran back asking for water and wet towels.
Meanwhile, Suzanne Popson began breast-feeding the boy to give him fluids and her husband turned on the air-conditioning.
The three left quickly to take the boy to an emergency room but changed direction when they realized they were closer to the boy's pediatrician's office.
When they took the boy there, Weiss continued, they learned he hadn't suffered any permanent damage. Wanting to be sure, Suzanne Popson insisted they take the child to a lab, where she asked for tests to confirm the boy's condition.
None of the three ever called police, but a restaurant employee at Risky Business, at North Oracle Road and First Avenue, did - after piecing together the events behind the frantic scene.
"I'm not here to get anybody in trouble, but at the same time, I think it's up to all of us in the world as adults to watch after children," restaurant owner Jon Alubowicz said. "I'm thankful the child is OK and made it through what he did."
He said the Popsons' lunch lasted about an hour and 20 minutes.
After the group left he decided he had to call the police, he said, thinking about the June 29 incident that claimed the life of Dalina Gutierrez's 6-month-old daughter, Alejandra.
Tucson police said Gutierrez, 21, picked up two of her three children from a relative's home about 5 a.m. She took the older child inside but left Alejandra in the car and fell asleep for at least five hours. When Gutierrez awoke about 10:30 a.m., she realized Alejandra was still in the car. The baby had no pulse when medics arrived and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Gutierrez remained jailed Friday on $1 million bond.
The incident was the first this year in Arizona in which a child has died from being left inside a vehicle. At the time, it was the 10th such incident in the nation this year. But the days since then have been especially deadly, said Janette Fennell, president and founder Kids and Cars, a nonprofit child safety group based in San Francisco.
Sixteen deaths have been recorded now, she said.
"Everybody thinks this isn't going to happen to them," Fennell said. "But this is unfortunately the time of year that the lion's share of these incidents happen. . . . You think that finally people are going to get the message and never leave their kids alone in the car, but it continues to happen."
In 2002, 30 children died in the United States after being left alone in cars, she said, down from 34 deaths the year before. In Arizona, at least eight children have died since 1994.
It's amazing the Popsons' son won't be added to that list, said Dr. Kevin Reilly, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Arizona who also works in the emergency department at University Medical Center.
"I think we're very lucky we didn't have a heat-related death," he said. "I think there was some divine intervention."
According to a study, he said, a car on a 93-degree day will reach 125 degrees within 20 minutes. Within 40 minutes, it reaches 140 degrees.
"I think that our job as health- care professionals is to point out to people that it's an extremely dangerous practice to leave your children in the car, even if you think it's only going to be for a couple of minutes," he said.
That's true even on cool days, he and Fennell said, because kids can knock the car in gear and roll into the street - or run over other children. Someone can steal the car, taking the kids, too.
Weiss addressed his clients' fitness as parents by pointing to how quickly Child Protective Services returned the boy and his two older siblings to the couple. They were taken Tuesday afternoon and returned about 24 hours later.
Fennell said the relatively quick return wasn't unusual, compared to similar cases.
"Obviously it was a mistake," Weiss said of the incident. "They are regular church-going people . . . and, I guess, above all of that, really loving and responsible parents. I can't even begin to tell you how terrible this is for them."
I've already decided that it is going to cost the careless parent a window at the very least if I EVER witness a baby left in a parked vehicle like this during our Texas summer. There's a raised projection of metal on my key ring that should work nicely for this purpose, and I'll make it my business to find a rock or piece of metal if it doesn't.
I think I came in on the tail end of one of these incidents a few years ago (mother was coming out of the store with baby still strapped in car during August, and the baby didn't look good through the glass), and I still feel guilty about not getting there sooner and calling 911 or smashing the window myself THEN calling 911.
You are perfect and could never make any kind of error. We will leave it at that. And I thought there was only one perfect Man. I was mistaken! NOT!!!! Now puff yourself up with pride and ego. We all know what that goes before.
Heaven knows I am not a perfect parent either. Several times I've left something dangerous within my child's reach because I was distracted. That is understandable, THAT happens to us all at one point. Distraction for one or two moments happens.
Think about what has to happen to forget a baby in a car. First you have to forget. That MIGHT happen, get distracted by conversation. Then you have to keep on forgetting! Which means, of course, that the baby's presence doesn't cross your mind. For 1 minute for a mother to forget her child exists, for 2 minutes, for 10 minutes maybe while you're having an interesting conversation. But neither of them thought of that baby ONCE during that 1 1/2 hours. Neither mommy or daddy could possibly have remembered that sweet little face without ALSO remembering that the child was supposed to be at lunch with them.
How do you have a 4 month old baby and forget he/she exists for so long? Tell me! Because I can tell you, at that age, I ADORED my babies. I couldn't go out to dinner with my husband and NOT spend half my time talking about the baby! I'm not extraordinary! I couldn't have stopped worrying about them no matter what you did. I was consumed by them. Those babies were a part of me!
And THAT is the way it is supposed to be. We MUST be extra alert and aware because they depend upon us for their health and safety. What are parents doing today that interferes with that connection?
Your post made me feel ill. I can see that happening so easily. Maybe we should all buy cars with keyless entry....
You obviously can make a small mistake but not a big one. That must be nice. I can't say the same for myself. I can't tell what kind of mistake I may make. I really don't think I could become distracted enough to forget where my kid was for an hour but I won't say I couldn't.
I am capable of huge mistakes like almost any other human. You are almost perfect congratulation.
P.s if you can keep from making huge mistakes why not stop all of them?
The cop was a complete idiot who should be fired from the police force. It would have been useful to call the fire department -- not only do they have axes, they could hose down the car to keep it cool if necessary.
The auto-locking feature is a mega-lawsuit waiting to happen. I much prefer the Honda Civic solution -- the driver's side door can't be locked from the inside (that is, you can lock it from the inside while it is closed but then you can't get out), only from the outside, so the only way to lock your keys inside the car is if you get out on the passenger side.
Auggggh, the windows are that strong? Or were just gently tapping away for fear of spraying the kid with shards of glass?
Auggggh, the windows are that strong? Or were just gently tapping away for fear of spraying the kid with shards of glass?
My mother also left me alone inside the house. I remember sitting in my little rocking chair and just staring out the window for hours. This went on for years.
/end of psychotherapy session
They didn't wait and it was a residential neighborhood. Very few people were home, else all the cries, screams and commotiom would have brought more people out. The women retrieved the tools from the garage. They just didn't know how to break a car window. That polyvinylbutyrate center and rubber mounting makes them very tough. Consider the saying, "he throws like a girl", it applies here.
"The cop was a complete idiot... "
That's an understatement! 911 gets all the depts., so it's up to the command center who is sent. They did know a baby was locked in the car though.
"The auto-locking feature is a mega-lawsuit waiting to happen. I much prefer the Honda Civic solution -"
Yes. I had an old Ford that required the lock down and the latch be held, as the door was closed, to lock it. That was much better. Ma did notice that when she was driving all the doors would suddenly lock. The car was new though and the equivalent to this never happened yet. It was cool and the doors doors don't lock if the windows are open. This happened in 90 degree weather, after the AC was on-windows closed.
The baby was my 4 month old grandson Sammy. Poor Sammy! Ma called, still crying after it was all over. I asked my daughter why she didn't call me. She said that I was too far away. I told her to always to call and reminded her of the old man's talents. At least I could have told her how to break a car window, had a few words with the cop, or his sarg if that didn't fly.
Unfortunately, the way things work out, this kid may be taking care of one of us as a senior in a nursing home. I shudder to think how today's throw-away kids are going to handle the elderly of my generation. All of us will suffer. This is a huge societal problem.
The polyvinylbutyrate center and rubber mounts make them really tough. You have to put some speed behind the hammer and really give it a blast to pop them. Consider the saying, "he throws like a girl".
I'm a parent. You never "realize that you left your child in the car." Never.
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