Southern California toddler dies after being left in minivan outside home

[celeb_2006]

(Sorry honey don't mean to steal your thunder but wanted to start yet another thread, to highlight that this is happening way too often to dismiss as bad parenting, etc. etc.)

Santa Clarita toddler dies after being left in minivan outside his home - Los Angeles Times

A 23-month-old Canyon Country boy died Monday after his mother left him inside the family minivan for several hours, authorities said.

Jack Winchester was dead when Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were called to his family's home in the 20300 block of High Point Place about 5:10 p.m. Monday, authorities said.

The boy's mother had left him in the minivan with the windows rolled up after returning from a grocery shopping trip that afternoon with his two siblings, ages 6 and 4, Los Angeles Sheriff's Lt. Dave Dolson said.

The mother, whose name had not been released this morning, left the vehicle to unload groceries and assumed the two older children had unloaded Jack, Dolson said.

After she realized Jack was missing, she searched the house and found him still strapped into his car seat in the minivan, unconscious, Dolson said.

"It was a combination of absent-mindedness and distraction," Dolson said.

Sheriff's investigators responded to a 911 call at the address reporting a baby that was not breathing, Dolson said. It was not clear whether Jack's mother placed the call, he said.

Investigators could not say today how long the boy had been in the car or whether his death was heat-related. Temperatures in the area were in the 90s late Monday afternoon, and Dolson said given the time of day and type of vehicle, the temperature inside the minivan could have reached 140 degrees.

The boy's death is being investigated as a homicide and an autopsy is expected by Wednesday. Dolson said there was no sign the boy was harmed before he was left in the minivan, and said investigators had no record of previous emergency or police calls to the home.

Investigators have questioned Jack's mother, whom Dolson described as "distraught," and his father, who arrived home soon after the boy was discovered. Detectives planned to question the couple's two children today, Dolson said.

No one had been arrested this morning in connection with the incident, Dolson said.

[sparkly]

Yep, sounds like bad parenting to me.

[A*O]

I'm not defending this stupid woman at all, but I can remember times when I'd been out shopping and the kids had FINALLY fallen asleep in the back of the car on the way home so I'd leave them there (with a door open) while I unpacked the groceries to avoid waking them up too soon BUT I don't think I ever noticed they weren't in the house with me SEVERAL HOURS later.

At the big casino in Melbourne they have special security patrols in the carparks checking for kids who have been left in the car while their parents go and blow their welfare cheques in the pokie machines. The cops are called and the parents are arrested.

[Butterfly]

You know what I do? I unload the child before I unload the groceries. There is just no excuse.

[LynnieD]

OBVIOUSLY bad parenting.

[McJag]

You know what I do? I unload the child before I unload the groceries. There is just no excuse.

There ya go!

[OCD]

I'm probably one of the most overprotective parents on the planet and I can see this happening.

I've never even left my kids in the car to buy gas, or anything. I ask people if they have guns and porno lying around if my kid wants to play at their house amongst other things.

My 12 year old has NO myspace, and hasn't ever seen a rated R flick.

But....something is weird in society now. I think it's technology. I think it fucks with your brain. I think it drains it of like awareness or energy or something. It's like a fog. Add in anti-depressants (I bet a lot of these ladies are on them) and it spells distaster.

People run around like chickens with there heads cut off, driving so and so here, dropping off another over there, forgetting something at the store, running back, blah blah blah. Everyone is so stupidly busy doing pretty much nothing that everything becomes a haze.

This is not normal. Our lives, the way we live. It's a big potential disaster, from the dumb lady on the freeway gabbing on her phone like she's got mad skills while veering into your lane, to people leaving kids in cars. The shit is going down.

I seriously think it's our culture and lifestyles coming into play.

I do.

[LynnieD]

OH MY GOD!!!! An honest person in our mist!!! Thank you OCD!

[A*O]

You know what I do? I unload the child before I unload the groceries. There is just no excuse.

And leave the child unattended in the HOUSE? Are you mad?? (Joke!)

I agree with OCD too and you know what I think causes a lot of this befuddlement? Don't laugh. Mobile phones. Women are generally very good at multi tasking but when they have a mobile phoned surgically attached to their head, as many do, they seem to focus only on that really, really important convo they are having with their nail technician instead of taking note of what's actually happening around them.

[OCD]

Yes! The damned cell phones. Amongst other gadgetry. I don't have one, and I have enough problems figuring out what the hell I'm supposed to be doing.

It is completely mind blowing that we as humans are at the point where we can forget something so simple like whether or not our child is in our car.

I'm going Amish. I swear. We are all so damned unhappy. It's all the shiznit.

Consumerist burn out.

[Butterfly]

And leave the child unattended in the HOUSE? Are you mad?? (Joke!)

I'm the mad !I have been known to carry 4 heavy bags in one hand and him in the other, and when he was old enough he helped.

I was a single mother for the first 7.5 years of his life. I was crazy busy working and everything else everyone does, and not once have I left him in the car for anything. I of course put him before my needs. We are living in a world where some people just don't really care about anything but themselves, and they're breeding .

[aabbcc]

My vote is for bad parenting. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't have my younger children [especially one who is only 4] be responsible for unloading the baby from the car. This woman is an idiot. Obviously, she didn't see him in the house so she just forgets about him? Who does that??

You take the kids from the car straight away. Plunk the youngest in the playpen so that he can't go anywhere while you're attention is on something else, and then you have the other two kids help carry the bags so you know where they are.

It isn't difficult.

[Honey]

Another kid dies in a car, horrible

I'm not defending this stupid woman at all, but I can remember times when I'd been out shopping and the kids had FINALLY fallen asleep in the back of the car on the way home so I'd leave them there (with a door open) while I unpacked the groceries to avoid waking them up too soon BUT I don't think I ever noticed they weren't in the house with me SEVERAL HOURS later.

I asked my Mum if she ever left us kids in the car and she said the same thing...I can't see how a parent can forget a child, you forget a purse or a phone not a person!?

[burnt_toast]

Yup ... kids go in first. My youngest is two and a half and I give her a loaf of bread to carry, the older a bag or two of groceries, load myself up with a hand free to help the tot up the steps. Then, I run back for load two on my own.

60 seconds alone in the house vs. hours cooking to death in a car. I'll go for the house.

I don't get it either and it seems to be such a rampant issue. I'm as scatterbrained as anyone, but I ALWAYS know where my kids are. No reason for the groceries to take a higher priority.

[travelbug]

I'm probably one of the most overprotective parents on the planet and I can see this happening.

I've never even left my kids in the car to buy gas, or anything. I ask people if they have guns and porno lying around if my kid wants to play at their house amongst other things.

My 12 year old has NO myspace, and hasn't ever seen a rated R flick.

But....something is weird in society now. I think it's technology. I think it fucks with your brain. I think it drains it of like awareness or energy or something. It's like a fog. Add in anti-depressants (I bet a lot of these ladies are on them) and it spells distaster.

People run around like chickens with there heads cut off, driving so and so here, dropping off another over there, forgetting something at the store, running back, blah blah blah. Everyone is so stupidly busy doing pretty much nothing that everything becomes a haze.

This is not normal. Our lives, the way we live. It's a big potential disaster, from the dumb lady on the freeway gabbing on her phone like she's got mad skills while veering into your lane, to people leaving kids in cars. The shit is going down.

I seriously think it's our culture and lifestyles coming into play.

I do.

Yes, I am so tired of the overstimulation of the way we live now. I am tired of the expectation that everyone has a cell phone glued to their ear and can be reached at a moment's notice. There have been several times where the school has called about my child being sick and because they couldn't reach me instantly, they called my husband's cell, bothering him at work and told him to come get my son. What the hell did schools do before cell phones? I have mine in my purse usually and I may not be always available at the drop of a hat. Leave a message and I'll call back in a few minutes, dammit!

We were out walking on some wooded trails one Saturday and passed someone yapping on their cell phone Seriously, can't people live without these things?