• 11-year-old girl dies after being found in hot car in her family's driveway
    12 replies, posted
https://abc7ny.com/11-year-old-dies-after-being-found-in-hot-car-in-her-li-driveway/4080213/ CORAM, Long Island (WABC) -- Questions remain about the death of an 11-year-old girl on Long Island who was found alone in the family car in the stifling heat, with the windows shut. Authorities were called around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday when the child was found inside a vehicle on Kathleen Crescent in Coram. Apparently the girl's mother and her three children were out running errands before they got home and went inside, police said. It is unclear how much time passed before the mother realized the 11-year-old wasn't inside and was still in the car with the windows up. The child's mother called 911 when she realized what had happened. Police said the mother was instructed to bring the child into the house and perform CPR. Responding officers assisted her until the girl was transported to Stony Brook Hospital where she later died. "When you're in that stagnated environment of a closed car, you're essentially in an oven," said Dr. Brian Lee of Long Island Community Hospital. He and his colleague, Dr Joseph Zito say it's tragic but not uncommon. "If a child's left completely defenseless in a car where they can't escape, they'll eventually succumb to that," said Dr. Lee. It was not clear why the girl could not get out on her own, although investigators said she apparently had some form of disability. Doctors say it would not have taken long in the blistering heat for the temperature in the car to rise. "I think the difference is how quickly the temperature rises," said Dr. Zito. "Within 10 minutes you can have a 10-15 degree increase in temperature. Within an hour, you can have a 40 degrees increase in temperature." That rapid rise would send body temperatures soaring. And they say children are particularly vulnerable. "Just because they have a smaller body mass, their body mass can warm up much more rapidly than that of an adult," said Dr. Lee. The emotional scene brought veteran officers to tears. Neighbors of the little girl are devastated and demanded answers about how this could happen. "It's an 11-year-old girl, it's a baby" neighbor Tommy Score said. "She had the rest of her life ahead of her, that family has the rest of their lives ahead of them without her." "She was a sweet little girl. Our kids played together. A very loving, wonderful kid," said next door neighbor Scott Krusen. The temperature was in the 90s outside when the young girl was found inside the stifling car. Crime scene investigators arrived to the scene to gather evidence, but it is still too early to determine if any charges will be filed.
Horrible tragedy. I read an in-depth Washington Post article on it years ago, it’s a sadly sporadically-common phenemon. The real misfortune here though is how old the kid was in this case.
usually you hear of the elderly or the very young dying in these sorts of situations but it's especially horrible for someone so relatively old to die in a car.
Its so weird that she couldnt get out of the car unless the disability they mention was very severe.
Just how the fuck can you forget you have a fucking kid? My parents literally stood by the car when I was young to wait until I got out. They'd refuse to leave until they knew I was with them. How the fuck do you just walk away without your child? Are you missing that many fucking braincells that you don't have object permanence and the moment your kid is out of sight they stop existing? I just fucking can't get these worthless fucks who leave their kids, or even their fucking pets, in a car then go jerking off until they're dead. What the fuck reminded you later that you should have a child? Was it the entire space in your house dedicated to them and all the belongings, or did you just get a scent of bacon and go, "Hmm, smells like my daughter... Ohh darn I left her in the oven car."
Autopilot. Stresses. Fatigue. There's a very wide number of reasons why that aren't just plain out and out conscious neglect or outright idiocy. It doesn't excuse it, not at all especially when this girl was 11 meaning the "not part of the routine long enough to have it ingrained in autopilot" shouldn't be a factor anymore, but it helps put things in perspective and maybe to give answers. Many people these days, especially parents, are overworked, overstressed, under-rested, and it makes their minds not just skip beats, but leap entire canyons. The heat as of late in many parts of the country isn't helping either- when you're too cold or too hot, your brain just does not like to function at optimal capacity. Again. It's never a complete excuse or justification for leaving vulnerable people or pets in a hot car. But understanding why it happens is important.
I was wondering what the commotion with all those police cars was, this happened very close by here
All cars these days should have cabin overheat protection standard to help reduce these cases when responsible parenting fails.
How would this work, would my car just turn itself on in a heateave to turn AC on just in case someone is still in there? Manufacturers are moving to have child alarms installed in their cars, alerting you when you lock the car if there might be someone left inside. Also, here's a few articles about how if you think you couldn't make a mistake like this, congratulations you're committing the same exact mistake parents who do this have. https://www.parents.com/baby/safety/car/youd-never-forget-your-child-in-the-car-right/ https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/anyone-could-forget-kids-in-hot-car-forgotten-baby-syndrome/
Basically. Some cars with apps allow you to make it so the cabin will never exceed a certain temperature. It's useful for keeping your car cool in the heat so when you get in, it's not scorching hot. Tesla does it quite well but they and other EVs have the added advantage of having a much bigger battery. It's a good thing to have just as a luxury so you don't have to run the AC on full blast when you get into your car in the summer (in the south here card can easily be over 110 degrees) but it has the added benefit of if you're stupid and leave something alive in the car, it won't die. I wouldn't encourage it as a means of hey I can leave my kid in the car at the store now but it's a good safety feature. Once more cars are run through apps I feel like more features like this will become available. Presumably you would also be able to use the app to tell if there are people in the car when it's off, too. So all around better.
I read about this earlier and was honestly kind of confused. The kid was 11, well of age of being able to get out of the car themselves? I suppose child locks is an explanation, but anecdotally when i was that age i knew what child locks were and that the front two seats would still unlock the car.
Having the weight sensors already utilized for seatbelt checks used for rolling down windows/turning on sporadic AC could be a reasonable solution.
Ive been left behind at the mall a bunch of times when i was a kid. I guess when you have multiple kids its easy to forget.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.