Toddler Found Dead in Van at Wis. Day Care

502 Views 20 Replies 17 Participants Last post by phathui5, Jun 14, 2005

meowee

Discussion Starter · Jun 10, 2005

9

This is the second child-left-in-vehicle-death I've read about today.

This happens far too often!!!!

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nati...are-Death.html

Quote:

Toddler Found Dead in Van at Wis. Day Care

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 9, 2005

Filed at 10:21 p.m. ET

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) -- A toddler was found dead Thursday in a day care center van after apparently being left there in muggy weather for most of the day, authorities said.

Police said the child was about 2 years old and may have been in the van outside the Come and Grow with Me Learning and Arts Center in suburban Milwaukee for up to eight hours. Temperatures reached into the lower 80s during the day.

Resident Karen Smith told reporters she witnessed the scene when the mother came looking for the child in mid-afternoon.

''This lady was screaming, `Where's my kid? Where's my kid?''' Smith told WTMJ-TV. '''You guys had my kid, picked up my kid at seven o'clock this morning and you're trying to tell me you haven't seen my kid all day?' ... They looked in the van, and her kid was just laying there.''

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scheelimama

· #2 · Jun 10, 2005

OMG! I hate these stories. I'd be so hysterical if I was that mom. I'll be sending a prayer up for their family tonight. I'm so paranoid about this sort of thing ever happening to me. Your right, it does happen far too often.

hunnybumm

· #3 · Jun 10, 2005

This is so sad. On top of the fact that this pour child died in the hands of her daycare, why didn't they realize she was missing?! Don't they have some sort of roll call? I definitly don't only blame the driver but the whole establishment. It's sad when a child is missing for 8 hours and the adults in charge or her don't even know it.

Even sadder yet is that there will be so many more of these stories as the summer progresses.

phathui5

· #4 · Jun 11, 2005

Oh my gosh. That's horrible. You trust a place to take care of your child and that happens. I can't even imagine the pain that poor mama must be in.

WinterWillow

· #5 · Jun 11, 2005

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Pam_and_Abigail

· #6 · Jun 11, 2005

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User101

· #7 · Jun 11, 2005

This makes me so sad. What a pointless tragedy.

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Attila the Honey

· #8 · Jun 11, 2005

The feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when I hear about stuff like that... ugh. I can't even begin to comprehend what that mother is going through.

Does everyone else run to kiss and hug their children when they read these things, too?

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meowee

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jun 11, 2005

I do run and kiss my kids...

but what can be done about this? I don' know the exact number, but there are many such deaths each year. I do a head count every time I return home-- when I return a cart in the parking lot I leave at least one door wide open on the car (and I do not live in a safe neighborhood). I hope everyone who hears about this story starts a "head count" policy in their home/ daycare, or checks that the car/ carseats are empy before locking up. It is SO sad!!! What a painful, lonely way for a little child to die.

mrzmeg

· #10 · Jun 11, 2005

This happened very recently here in Little Rock, too---a young child was left on the van after the route and forgotten about when the driver had to run off to his second job. Found several hours later

So sad and scary. Just to think about what these little children go through and are thinking...

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mrzmeg

· #11 · Jun 11, 2005

PS---here in AR, this is promting a law that will direct daycare vans to have a button at the back of the vehicle that must be pushed after the route, or the van begins honking, etc; the idea that the driver would catch any children left on the van on the way back. I think it's way overdue.

chersolly

· #12 · Jun 11, 2005

You'd think that these daycare centers and drivers would have become more accountable after the first accident.

juju's mom

· #13 · Jun 11, 2005

I am so sad. That button idea in AR is wonderful. Probably not fool proof, but it is a start! I can't imagine what that mother is going thru right now.

Jenn

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AngelBee

· #14 · Jun 11, 2005

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hunnybumm

· #15 · Jun 11, 2005

I like the button idea too, I don't really understand what it does but anything that would make the care provider take a second to think "are all the children out." would probably do wonders.

Raven

· #16 · Jun 11, 2005

Words are just not enough....

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quelindo

· #17 · Jun 12, 2005

I live eleven blocks from this daycare center and go past it all the time. I was home the day it happened and it makes me sick to think I was within walking distance of that van while the toddler was inside all day. How horrible.

Satori

· #18 · Jun 14, 2005

Its things like this that make me terrified to let dd go on class field trips. At least in her class they do head counts every few minutes to account for every child. I cant believe the driver didn't check to make sure the van was empty. I drop my dd off myself and I STILL check the car seat when I get out to make sure I didn't forget to drop her off! (I made it all the way to the freeway one time before realizing I forgot to drop her off)

MilkyMcGee

· #19 · Jun 14, 2005

Why do these people keep DOING this stuff?

I found a baby in a black suv on a hot summer southern california day. He was wearing a fleece coat, and all he had to drink was a bottle of hot formula. Mommy was in a store next to my place of employment at the time, and only came out when the firemen took him away from me.
I broke mommie's SUV window to get him out :LOL and we all laughed at her when she asked the police to arrest ME for vandalism.

I hope those daycare workers think about that baby, everyday for the REST OF THEIR LIVES

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jlazx2

· #20 · Jun 14, 2005

It bothers me that the baby was trying to get out. The report said the eyewitness stated the baby was laying there when they opened the van. I wonder if they had headcounts or check in procedures & if it was missed? That poor baby & mam.

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