Mother who forgot baby in car wants changes made to car seats

[sweetneet]

Originally Posted by nataliam1976

Main topic related : a family left a child in the taxi and the police wanted to press charges against the cab driver for not following the rules - while the parents havent even been given a warning. I can understand that the cab driver didnt check the back seat properly, but who has bigger responsibility here? No wonder then people feel like they have done nothing wrong. Boston hack almost takes blame for forgotten child - Yahoo! News

that is insane. i cannot believe the cabbie is being blamed AT ALL for this. The parents remembered their luggage, but left their FIVE-YEAR-OLD in the cab? Who does that???

What is extremely sad is that the parents are not being investigated at all, yet the cabbie is getting all the blame... it's sad that in this day and age, when a child is forgotten, everybody points fingers and points the blame on everybody and everything BUT the child's parents.

i thought it was almost funny that the policewoman said " it was an important opportunity to remind cab drivers why we have a rule that dictates they must check the back of their cab after every fare." Um, i think what better needs to be said it "this is an important opportunity to remind PARENTS of the unwritten and somewhat OBVIOUS rule that you should check the car after leaving to make sure you don't forget your own CHILDREN."

the statement that made sense was this

"I think the sad piece here is that the police are not recognizing the responsibility of the adults and are now saying this driver also has to be responsible for passengers who forget their children," said Donna Blythe-Shaw, a staff representative for the United Steelworkers Boston Taxi Drivers Association.

i agree 100% with that statement. it is really, really sad and this seems to be an ever-growing trend. I'm almost surprised these parents aren't suing the cabbie for not checking the van before leaving. Only in America.

[NVMyLV]

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?se...rld&id=5266232


The alarms WON't work. Let me explain...

Baby Left in Car Dies from HeatWednesday, May 02, 2007 | 8:35 PM CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - May 2, 2007 --

A 1-year-old boy died after being left alone in a car for hours as temperatures soared into the 80s, and his father was charged with negligent homicide, police said.
Timothy Reid was found unresponsive by his father, Robert Reid, Tuesday afternoon, nearly seven hours after Reid parked the car at work, officials said. Emergency workers pronounced the toddler dead at the scene and said the temperature in the car was 142 degrees.
Reid, 43, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and aggravated child abuse and neglect, Lt. Tim Carroll said Wednesday.
"The punishment is done regardless of what happens in court," Carroll said. "He is torn up. He reacted the way a parent should react who has lost a child."
Story continues belowAdvertisementPolice said Reid took his three other children, ages 6, 10 and 12, to school Tuesday morning and had intended to take Timothy to day care before driving to work.
Investigators said Reid instead went to work and left the boy in the car seat.
Arrest records show the car was equipped with an interior motion detector that tripped the alarm several times on Tuesday. The father eventually turned off the alarm remotely from inside the office when he could not see anyone around the vehicle. The boy was discovered when Reid went to his car to go pick up the children that afternoon.
The boy's mother had driven to the company she owns with her husband in a different vehicle. She was trying to resuscitate the child when emergency workers got there.
The outside temperature Tuesday reached 89 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Reid was released on $15,000 bail pending a May 23 court hearing; records show he did not yet have a lawyer. A woman who answered the phone at Unishippers, the business owned by the boy's parents, said no one would comment Wednesday.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[sweetneet]

^OMG what a sad story. and yes, perfect example for why alarms are NOT the solution. i think the solution is to raise awareness to all parents for this issues (all parents who use a daycare should take a mandatory class on the dangers of leaving a child in a hot car, be given tips on not forgetting a child, etc).

i am scientist by training and for me it is a no-brainer to realize that the temperature inside a car could rise to 140+ degrees very quickly, even though the temperature outside is much less. thus, it has always been obvious to me that a car easily can become an oven and a could kill a child in merely minutes (let alone several hours) and so making sure a child is not left behind in a vehicle is of utmost importance. I honestly don't think every parent fully grasps this concept and this is what needs to be addressed.

[pursewatch]

Originally Posted by nataliam1976

Main topic related : a family left a child in the taxi and the police wanted to press charges against the cab driver for not following the rules - while the parents havent even been given a warning. I can understand that the cab driver didnt check the back seat properly, but who has bigger responsibility here? No wonder then people feel like they have done nothing wrong. Boston hack almost takes blame for forgotten child - Yahoo! News

I find it unbelievable that the police blamed the taxi driver but not the parents who forgot their own child in the taxi. Seriously, personal responsibility is at an all time low in this country.