Should parents/caregivers be criminally punished for leaving a child in a hot car, especially if it results in injury or death to the child? [2 vote(s)]
A Kentucky father accidentially left his toddler son in the car.. thankfully, a coworker discovered the toddler in the car and the child was rushed to the hospital, and is expected to be ok.
I know this happens alot in summer months, but, I for one have never understood how a parent can "forget" they have a child in their car. I'm a mother, and I never forgot my child anywhere. Does that make me a perfect mother? Of course not... it simply means I pay attention.
So this leads me to my question...Should Parents/Caregivers be criminally punished if a child is forgotten and left in a hot car, especially if it results in the injury or death of that child?
Believe it or not, this crime happens pretty frequently. I can't begin to figure out how the heck you can forget a child in your car. Happened here a couple of years ago. A man forgot his infant son his carseat in his car on a really hot summer day. Guy drove to work, ,locked his car up, went into his office. Left the baby in the carseat in the hot car. for aomost the entire workday. And what's worse, the car had motion sensors, so his car alam kept going off. And instead of going to check the car after his car alarm going off several times, he just kept turning the alarm off with his keychain.. claimed he figured something was wrong with the alarm and he "didn't have time" to go check the car because he was so busy at work. Well, of course the alarm kept going off, because the baby obviously kept moving around alot in the carseat setting off the motion senors which set off the alarm. If braindead daddy had checked on his car even ONCE, his son would be alive today... because he would have seen that oops, forgot the baby in the car and called 911. But he didn't check his car until he left work for the day.. and by then it was too late, the baby was dead. He was originally charged with felony child abuse and I think involuntary manslaughter, but the charges were dropped.
