It's happened again in the Delaware Valley: A small child was locked in a sweltering car while the adults left it to go shopping. The tot was saved, but the case is a warning.
We now have a scary local warning about an annual bout of stupidity or irresponsibility: A grandmother and an aunt left an 11-month old baby in the backseat of a stiflingly hot locked car Sunday while they shopped in a Bensalem Township, Pa., Target store.
Fortunately, the tot will live to see Birthday No. 1, which is next week. An off-duty Philadelphia police officer noticed the infant and managed to pry the car door open.
Police said the baby had been in the car for about 15 minutes, and its interior had reached 115 degrees. Who knows how long the child would have been exposed to oven-like temperatures were it not for this officer? Cheers to one of the city's finest.
As for the 40-year-old grandmother and 19-year-old aunt, both have been charged with child endangerment. Let's hope the baby's mom is more level-headed and somehow missed out on the family child-care obliviousness gene.
Bensalem Director of Public Safety Fred Haran told WPVI-TV: "I don't know how someone forgets that you leave a 1-year-old in the car on one of the most blistering days of the year."
Especially, we might add, when TWO adult someones are involved.
Sunday's case took place in the same Bucks County neighborhood where several people were nabbed for leaving children in their cars while betting at Parx Casino. Compulsive gambling? A lame but understandable excuse for such behavior. But shopping at Target? Was there a sale on disposable diapers or birthday gifts for a 1-year-old?
A few years after an earlier spate of child-left-in-locked-car cases, some articles suggested that this could happen to anyone, not just a "bad" parent. Mostly, they offered a scenario of an adult with a high-stress job who to forgot to drop a kid off at daycare. Again, understandable, but still irresponsible.
One wonders whether total social media or cell phone immersion has increased the frequency of left-child incidents. Folks who text and drive, or walk into walls while chasing Pokemon figures would likely be the same ones who can't recall that they'd strapped Rick Jr. into his car seat just 10 minutes earlier.
The website kidsandcars.org states that an average of 37 U.S. children die each year of heat-related injury after being trapped in hot vehicles. The automobile industry has been working on some technology. It'll be a while, though, before child-seat alarms or ignition interlocks become standard. On a positive note, carmakers quickly incorporated well-marked latches inside the lids of trunks -- another place where trapped children have lost lives.
Right now, saying or doing something if you see a child (or pet) locked in a hot car -- as this Philadelphia cop did Sunday -- is the best tragedy prevention advice. If you're the one traveling with a small child, take steps to remind yourself of your precious cargo. Place an important item (your purse, briefcase or cell phone) securely in the back seat, too, so you'll look there when you exit the vehicle.
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