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| Children should not be left in cars for convenience. |
It just seems to be a lot of trouble to undo seat belts or car seats and get the kids out of the car just to go into the store for a few minutes. If these parents thought about and totally understood the dangers involved in leaving a child unattended in a vehicle, there would probably not be any deaths of these children.
According to an article at WebMD:
"Every summer, heartbreaking and preventable deaths happen when children are left alone in hot cars. More than 600 U.S. children have died that way since 1990, according to the nonprofit safety group Kids and Cars. "
The majority of parents wouldn't even dream of leaving a child alone in a vehicle, but for some reason there are some parents who just don't seem to understand the dangers.
There are currently only about 15 states in the United States with laws against leaving children alone in vehicles. Every state must enact laws making this practice illegal.
It is our responsibility as concerned citizens to call the police if we witness a situation where a child has been left alone in a vehicle.
When the police officer arrives, he will normally make one of two choices:
- Locate the parent or caregiver and give them a piece of his or her mind.
- Take charge of the child or children, charge the parent with child neglect or endangerment and place the children in the care of child protective services, which may in some cases be too harsh a punishment.
When the temperature is 80 degrees outside, the temperature inside a vehicle parked in direct sunlight can reach 110 degrees in about 5 minutes and according to the organization "Safe Kids", a child's body heats up 5 times faster than an adult's body.
There are also documented cases where children left alone in a vehicle were:
- strangled by power windows
- poisoned by carbon monoxide gas
- choked by their own toys
- kidnapped
- injured when the vehicle was stolen
Leaving a child in an unattended vehicle is an irresponsible act, whether it is because the parent forgot the child was there or any other reason. We should not judge a criminal act by the end results of that act. When a person points a loaded gun at another person and pulls the trigger, that is attempted murder. The fact that the gun jammed and didn't fire had no bearing on the attempted murder charge.
There are far too many cases where children have died as the direct result of this irresponsible act and even if the child is lucky enough to survive, the act of leaving him/her alone in that vehicle is no less of a crime.
What do you think. I would like to hear what you have to say. Please join me on LinkedIn and Google+.
As a freelance writer, I write on many other topics outside government and politics. If you need some help writing those high quality blog posts, you can get in touch over here. - Ken
