UPDATE: Toddler left in day-care van died from heat exposure

This is such a sad things that seems to happen far to often.  It baffles me that anyone could potentially “forget” a child in a vehicle.  I have a 3yo and have never “forgot” to get him out of the car. And yes you can compare this situation to a Brinks driver.  As it is a Brinks drivers responsibilty to “protect” the bags of money it is a child care providers responsibility to “protect” the children.  What kind of “checks” did this daycare have in place? Why didn’t anyone notice this child not in class? I am sorry, I can not have any sympathy for this daycare center, this tragedy is unacceptable. Did he remember to grab his cell phone before he got out of the van?  He should have know how many children were on this van to begin with and should have made sure that exact number of children were taken off of the van.  My heart goes out to the parents of the child.  As a parent the hardest decision you can make is trusting someone else to care for your child and once you finally make the decision to trust that person or facility you have to tell yourself everyday that your child will be taken care of. You can call it an accident or mistake all you want but the bottom line is this is neglect & irresponsibility.

Good points made by DT about bags of money never being lost etc. Be assured this worker will never legally work in daycare again. However deserving anyone is to be entrusted with the most precious cargo the fact remains: there are 15—25 cases of baby death by hypothermia, “left in cars”, a year in the USA that are not intentional. The babys are still dead but the lives of the wealthy mom, or the pastor, or the soldier are wrecked beyond therapy.

No excuses, but a little compassion. We all say we can do better, and we mostly do. But 15-25 times a summer in America this happens even though everyone knows better.

Have you ever been driving along on a familiar route, then noticed that you didn’t really “SEE” the past five exit signs, “autopilot” had taken over? This is a known phenomenon in neuro circles, and nobody is really safe. We have to take known flaws and reinforce our defenses.

HOW VALUABLE IS A PERSON?

How often do jewelers leave diamonds in taxies—or Brinks Security guards forget that half million dollars
in the truck….That’s right not very often—Never in fact—They don’t
because they are entrusted with a very valuable asset—insured and avidly protected with their lives. And yet we read all too often of distracted and immature people leaving their infants in cars to die horrible deaths—Do they value their children as much as that
Jeweler does his diamonds—or the guard the cash….or the people with the Michael Jackson memorial tickets—The answer is no—they
don’t—and we should not make broad and sympathetic excuses—for these people. Any day care employee who overlooks
a child in an auto—should not be employed taking care of children
any more than they should be employed by Brinks to look after treasure….or running the government—or any other kind of serious responsibility.
Adults are the security guards of infants—not the other way around.  The examples given in the article that fedup links to—tragic as they are—are more examples of persons who should never have had a child or have been
entrusted with one—-Rushing off to work and being distracted is not an excuse. If they are that careless with an infant, they are careless or worse
in other areas. These people are guilty alright—of ignorance and selfishness;
of overlooking another human being—more important than diamonds. I’m sure each one of them—including the day-care employee had their wallets, credit cards and car keys on them at the time.They didn’t forget that did they ?  Okay then.