Sigh…
In a tragedy that seems to happen all too often, another baby in Phoenix has died when they were left in a car.
On Tuesday, 17 month old Ryan Gallagher was left in a car for seven hours. His mother, 22 year old Ashly Duchene somehow forgot to drop him off at day care and went to work at 10:00. She came out seven hours later and Ryan was dead.
The high temperature on Tuesday was 88 — demonstrating that this sort of tragedy doesn’t just happen in the oppressive heat of the Phoenix summer. I posted a graph here that shows how hot (and how quickly) the interior of a car can get at various temperatures.
Ms. Duchene was later arrested and charged with felony negligent homicide in the death of her son.
We’ve posted about similar deaths before on this blog, leading to some very spirited debate. There was an interesting article in today’s Arizona Republic that discusses some of the disparity in how these types of cases are adjudicated.
I won’t even attempt to explain it, but there seemed to be far more public outcry in August when police officer Tom Lovejoy left his police K-9 dog Bandit in a car. Bandit died and Lovejoy has been charged with reckless animal abuse, a misdemeanor, and still faces a trial. Lovejoy and his family have even received death threats.
Regardless of your opinion on what should be done with caregivers who leave children in cars, one thing is abundantly clear — these tragedies are completely avoidable. Please, do whatever it takes. I used to think suggestions like posting a note on your dashboard, or “Put your wallet or briefcase or purse in the back seat. These are all the sort of things we automatically grab for, one more way to remember, `oh, yeah, the baby’s also in the back seat.” were ridiculous. Why someone would remember a purse or wallet but not their child is mind-numbing to consider, but if it works, do it.
[tags]Ryan Gallagher, child death[/tags]
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This is truly a sad story. Your mentioning about the police dog also is poignant. It has been my observation that when something happens like these two events, the latter get far more abusive responses than the former. I have always wondered why this is so.
I have two small children, one just born last Saturday, I can’t imagine ever forgetting they were in the car with me. You honestly have to be the type of person who is either under the influence of some drug, or totally conentrated or inundated with other things in your life – other than your children, in order to to be that absent minded. Regardless, its a tragedy,
Indeed it is so tragic.
Congrats on the new baby Robert!!
That is upsetting this has happened again. Personally when their is a problem I really like a solution that is a fail safe and doesnt count on humans. I think the best solution is for cars simply not to turn off when a safety belt is engaged. Or possibly doesnt turn off if the temperature is above a certain degree and the car is off.
Education is great. But you are still likely to have someone from the north that doesnt realize how fast a car can heat up down here in the southern states.
How in God’s name??? I know you just asked that, but… That poor innocent child. Just a heart breaking story. And it is about the heat of course, but the mind boggling thing is 7 hours and she didn’t think once about her child? How?
We hear PSAs in Dayton (sort of “north”) about cars heating, I’m sure they run all the time in AZ; this is not an education issue. Going 7 hours without realizing you left your toddler in a car is not education issue.
Mind you I don’t have children yet, but I’m never going to understand how someone can be so preoccupied that they forget their child in the car. I don’t care what the temperature is like where you live. How do you forget your child or your pet? (Sorry but this issue gets me worked up!)
This is indeed a horrible incident that happens too often.
Ditto on what everyone is saying. This is truly a very sad event that should never of happened. Prevention like this needs to happen. I think car manufacturers and OEMs should develop more preventative tools like heartbeat sensory or weight recognition that sounds an alarm when the temperature is X and it senses someone or something is in the car.
This is horribly tradgic, but this is clearly not the state of AZ’s lack of PSAs, education, or the auto manufacturer’s lack of preventative measures. Although a preventative tool in a car would be nice.
Seven hours??? She forgot her baby for seven hours?!! I’m a very empathetic person, VERY empathetic. I feel nothing for this woman…This is no different from any other type of child abuse.
This is beyond disturbing. Sorry Jay. I’ll calm down.