Hot car deaths ‘not failures of love, but failures of memory’ activist says | Posted Toronto | National Post
As police revealed more details about the death of a two-year-old boy outside Toronto, news of another incident on Thursday involving an unattended toddler inside a vehicle further exacerbated concerns over the steady flow of “hot car deaths” in North America.
The two-year-old boy from Milton, Ont., died on Wednesday after spending “an extended period of time” alone in a sedan parked outside the family’s home. A statement from Halton Regional Police said the boy was in the care of his maternal grandmother, while his mother was at an appointment, his father was at work and his 5-year-old sister was at school.
An autopsy showed the child had been exposed to “high-level temperatures.”
The afternoon temperature reached 28 degrees Celsius in Milton, but police said Wednesday the temperature inside the car reached 50 C.
Less than 24 hours later, police on the opposite side of Toronto in Markham, Ont., were called to a commercial parking lot, where they were forced to pry open a window in order to rescue a two-year-old girl inside a sweltering car.
It is unfortunate that people don’t seem to be getting the message
“It is unfortunate that people don’t seem to be getting the message,” Const. Blair McQuillan of York Regional Police said on Thursday.
The child was taken to hospital as a precaution and police arrested the 32-year-old mother for child abandonment, however no charges had been laid as of Thursday afternoon, Const. McQuillan confirmed.
No one has been arrested or charged in the death of the Milton boy, police say.
As she read headlines of the incidents on Thursday, Kristie Cavaliero was brought instantly back to May 25, 2011.
On that day, the Texas mother was out to lunch with her husband. She asked whether teachers at the daycare centre liked their one-year-old daughter’s outfit when he dropped her off that morning. Panic ensued. He hadn’t dropped her off. Ms. Cavaliero describes the frantic blur of what followed: running red lights to find their dying daughter lying in the parking lot at her husband’s workplace, with a crowd of employees trying to perform CPR.
“It’s really tough to read essentially the same story,” said Ms. Cavaliero, who has spent the past two years sifting through reports of child deaths and advocating for auto industry reform — particularly alarm systems for backseat passengers. “It’s just a devastating thing to live through.”
Kids and Cars, a non-profit organization of which Ms. Cavaliero is a member, compiles statistics on the U.S. deaths of children left alone in hot vehicles. There are an average of 38 per year in the United States, from a low of four in 1991 to a high of 49 in 2010.
For the silent majority of folks who read these stories, it scares them to death
“For the silent majority of folks who read these stories, it scares them to death,” said Ms. Cavaliero. “They might not say so, but many of them have had close calls.
“It could have been me,” says Ms. Cavaliero, who remains with her husband. They have nine-month old twins. “The only person who knows exactly what I’ve lost is him. For that reason, we stuck together through this.”
The Canadian incarnation of Kids and Cars, run by a personal injury lawyer in Halifax, is in its infancy and does not provide similar statistics. But a spokesperson at Canada Safety Council estimated an average of four to six deaths per year, based on the American numbers.
A Toronto toddler died in August 2010 after he was left in an SUV outside a home in Houston for almost two hours. Police said the family had returned from a trip to the grocery store and had to immediately attend to his older brother, who has autism. They were distracted and lost track of the toddler, said police at the time.
In 2003, a Montreal father left his 23-month old daughter in a vehicle for eight hours while he took the subway to work. According to the Montreal Gazette, Dominic Martin said he had forgotten to drop the girl off at daycare, and got onto the subway without noticing the toddler was in the back seat. A manslaughter charge was eventually dropped, after the Crown decided “there was no malice, no ill will, no intention — there was no fault on the part of Mr. Martin.”
Amber Rollins, spokesperson for Kids and Cars, said children left in the back seat are more easily forgotten and suggests drivers leave their cellphone or wallet near their toddler as another reminder to check the back seat before leaving the car.
On Thursday, Kids and Cars Canada founder John McKiggan recognized that a rash of online anger towards the Milton boy’s family was a “human” reaction to the death of any child. But the Halifax lawyer stressed that “almost universally” hot car deaths “are not failures of love, but failures of memory.”
As police revealed more details about the death of a two-year-old boy outside Toronto, news of another incident on Thursday involving an unattended toddler inside a vehicle further exacerbated concerns over the steady flow of “hot car deaths” in North America.
The two-year-old boy from Milton, Ont., died on Wednesday after spending “an extended period of time” alone in a sedan parked outside the family’s home. A statement from Halton Regional Police said the boy was in the care of his maternal grandmother, while his mother was at an appointment, his father was at work and his 5-year-old sister was at school.
An autopsy showed the child had been exposed to “high-level temperatures.”
The afternoon temperature reached 28 degrees Celsius in Milton, but police said Wednesday the temperature inside the car reached 50 C.
Less than 24 hours later, police on the opposite side of Toronto in Markham, Ont., were called to a commercial parking lot, where they were forced to pry open a window in order to rescue a two-year-old girl inside a sweltering car.
It is unfortunate that people don’t seem to be getting the message
“It is unfortunate that people don’t seem to be getting the message,” Const. Blair McQuillan of York Regional Police said on Thursday.
The child was taken to hospital as a precaution and police arrested the 32-year-old mother for child abandonment, however no charges had been laid as of Thursday afternoon, Const. McQuillan confirmed.
No one has been arrested or charged in the death of the Milton boy, police say.
As she read headlines of the incidents on Thursday, Kristie Cavaliero was brought instantly back to May 25, 2011.
On that day, the Texas mother was out to lunch with her husband. She asked whether teachers at the daycare centre liked their one-year-old daughter’s outfit when he dropped her off that morning. Panic ensued. He hadn’t dropped her off. Ms. Cavaliero describes the frantic blur of what followed: running red lights to find their dying daughter lying in the parking lot at her husband’s workplace, with a crowd of employees trying to perform CPR.
“It’s really tough to read essentially the same story,” said Ms. Cavaliero, who has spent the past two years sifting through reports of child deaths and advocating for auto industry reform — particularly alarm systems for backseat passengers. “It’s just a devastating thing to live through.”
Kids and Cars, a non-profit organization of which Ms. Cavaliero is a member, compiles statistics on the U.S. deaths of children left alone in hot vehicles. There are an average of 38 per year in the United States, from a low of four in 1991 to a high of 49 in 2010.
For the silent majority of folks who read these stories, it scares them to death
“For the silent majority of folks who read these stories, it scares them to death,” said Ms. Cavaliero. “They might not say so, but many of them have had close calls.
“It could have been me,” says Ms. Cavaliero, who remains with her husband. They have nine-month old twins. “The only person who knows exactly what I’ve lost is him. For that reason, we stuck together through this.”
The Canadian incarnation of Kids and Cars, run by a personal injury lawyer in Halifax, is in its infancy and does not provide similar statistics. But a spokesperson at Canada Safety Council estimated an average of four to six deaths per year, based on the American numbers.
A Toronto toddler died in August 2010 after he was left in an SUV outside a home in Houston for almost two hours. Police said the family had returned from a trip to the grocery store and had to immediately attend to his older brother, who has autism. They were distracted and lost track of the toddler, said police at the time.
In 2003, a Montreal father left his 23-month old daughter in a vehicle for eight hours while he took the subway to work. According to the Montreal Gazette, Dominic Martin said he had forgotten to drop the girl off at daycare, and got onto the subway without noticing the toddler was in the back seat. A manslaughter charge was eventually dropped, after the Crown decided “there was no malice, no ill will, no intention — there was no fault on the part of Mr. Martin.”
Amber Rollins, spokesperson for Kids and Cars, said children left in the back seat are more easily forgotten and suggests drivers leave their cellphone or wallet near their toddler as another reminder to check the back seat before leaving the car.
On Thursday, Kids and Cars Canada founder John McKiggan recognized that a rash of online anger towards the Milton boy’s family was a “human” reaction to the death of any child. But the Halifax lawyer stressed that “almost universally” hot car deaths “are not failures of love, but failures of memory.”
