Child Safety Should Be Paramount
Last updated Monday, June 13, 2005 10:07 PM CDT in Opinion
It's the sort of story people in the news business come to expect, and to dread.
The weather begins to warm up and from somewhere in the area, the state or the nation comes the story of a child, left unattended in a vehicle, being found dead.
We hate those stories. We hate them with all our passion and all our sensibilities. Such things should never happen and such stories should never cross our desks.
But they still do.
We read with dismay the story last week of a 3-year-old Little Rock boy being found dead in the van of the day care center where he was spending his days. The driver of the van is facing manslaughter charges for leaving the boy in the van for up to five hours. Those are the horror stories of summer.
A few days later came another story, this one about a new state law requiring the installation of child-safety alarms that might have prevented the boy's death. Unfortunately, that new law won't go into effect until July 1. Those are the reaction stories, trying to find some way to tell ourselves we can do something about these things.
And still another message was received late last week from Arkansas Children's Hospital. The e-mail message concerned the dangers of leaving children unattended in vehicles. It's the sort of thing we do as a community to try and prevent another tragedy by educating people about a potential danger.
The full text of the press release can be found in the hospital's web site, in the "press room" section. Most of the details in the hospital press release involve the exercise of common sense.
We all know, for example, that vehicles become ovens on hot summer days. According to a nurse quoted by the hospital, the temperature inside a parked car can reach 130 to 170 degrees in as little as 15 minutes. Heat exhaustion can occur at temperatures above 90 degrees and heat stroke may occur at temperatures above 105 degrees.
The hospital lists three situations that led to tragedy in the past: a child or children playing who let themselves into an unlocked car and shut themselves inside; an adult leaving a child in a vehicle, usually meaning for be gone for just a minute; children left in vehicles by adults who were unaware they were leaving a child. As the hospital noted, children can fall asleep or get out of their seats and hide in small places and it is up to the adults to keep them safe.
There is other worthwhile in the hospital's release and we recommend it to every adult who may have a child in his or her care. We hope it is read and remembered. We don't want to write another such reminder.
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