One tragedy turned into two for a Nevada family on Friday. The father was backing his SUV out of his driveway when his little boy ran out and was hit.
The toddler was transported to a local hospital, where he later died. But the distraught father stayed behind in the driveway of his Reno, Nev., home — and stabbed himself in the chest. The father was listed in stable condition over the weekend, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. Police did not release the names of anyone in the case.
So if you’re high on drugs and need to get home, what’s a parent to do? Lakisha Hogue apparently decided the best solution was to let her 6-year-old daughter drive their SUV.
Hogue, 30, of southeastern Pennsylvania, was arrested and charged with child endangerment after cops stopped the vehicle on Sunday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. Police say that Hogue was sitting in the passenger seat and told them that she was teaching the girl to drive. Hogue was jailed on $15,000 bond.
The judge wanted Lisa Marie Morris to be a lesson to all other parents — if you forget your child in a hot car, you go to jail.
Morris, 26, was sentenced last week to five years in prison followed by five years on probation for leaving her baby inside her car. Morris and her cousin had returned to her Augusta, Ga., area home after running errands on Aug. 7, 2008, and Morris says she thought the cousin had brought the child inside. Instead, Dalton Morris, who was just six weeks old, died in the car, where temperatures reached up to 126 degrees.
Morris pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and asked the judge not to send her to jail because she needs to take care of her 5-year-old daughter.
But Judge Michael N. Annis showed no mercy, the Augusta Chronicle reported. He said that Dalton’s death was completely preventable.
A teacher’s aide apparently forgot to take her seven-month-old girl to a babysitter and instead left the child in a school parking lot while she worked on Friday. Addeleena Sanchez died after being left in the car for five hours on Friday at Bowie Elementary School near Dallas, the Corsicana Daily Sun reported.
The child’s mother, 23, called her babysitter around 1:20 p.m., and that’s when she realized that she had forgotten the girl in the car. The temperature then in Corsicana, Tex., was 89 degrees. Police are investigating and have not yet decided whether to charge the mother.
So far this year, 29 kids have died after being left in hot cars. See stories about the tragedies here.
A Texas father says he “just totally forgot” to drop off his toddler son at daycare and instead left him in a hot car while he spent the day at work.
Kesen Hu, 34, went to his job at PayPal in the Austin, Tex., area at 9:20 a.m. last Wednesday, and seven hours later, returned to the car, where he found his son dead. Eighteen-month-old Daniel had died of hyperthermia, police said.
Now authorities are arguing over whether Hu should be charged. Police told the Austin-American Statesman that the investigation had not been finished, but that the district attorney wanted to quick action. Hu has now been charged with felony child endangerment. District Attorney John Bradley said that he wanted to send a message about child safety.
So far this year, 28 kids have died from heat stroke or hyperthermia after being left in hot cars.
One-year-old Giselle Gomez was so overheated after being left in a car that her face and body became covered with yellow heat blisters. The child died on Wednesday, and now her mother, Jennifer Gomez, has been jailed and charged with felony child endangerment.
Jennifer Gomez, 22, had left Giselle and her two-year-old sister in the car while she visited at relative at an insurance agency in Belleville, Mo. The kids had been sleeping, and the car’s engine was left running, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
The older child might have accidently turned on the heater, but later managed to leave the car and was not injured, detectives told the newspaper. Giselle wasn’t so lucky — she was strapped into a car seat — and was trapped inside the hot vehicle for at least an hour. The outside temperature at the time was 89 degrees.
She apparently wanted to see what Daddy was doing. But Donald Haslem didn’t see his 2-year-old daughter when he was moving his Jeep Wrangler from his neighbor’s carport. When he pulled the Jeep forward, he realized that he had run something over, according to a news release from the Winter Haven, Fla., police department.
Laysha Haslem was pronounced dead at a local hospital on Friday. An average of two kids die each week as a result of being hit by cars in driveways, according to Kids and Cars, a safety advocacy group. Summer is a deadly season, as children tend to be outside. Click here for safety tips and how to teach your child about the dangers of cars.
A four-year-old girl died of heat exposure after falling asleep in her family’s SUV while it was parked at a fleamarket in Brownsville, Tex., on on Sunday. Her mom has been charged with felony abandonment and/or endangerment of a child.
Felicitas Alexandra Cordova is the 23rd child this year to die from hypothermia or heat stroke as a result of being in a hot, parked vehicle, according to a S.F. State meterologist who tracks the trend. More info on hot-car deaths nationwide is here.
The high temperature on Sunday in Brownsville was 96 degrees. Olga Salazar, 37, was running three booths at the flea market with her older children when she lost track of Felicitas, authorities said. It’s unclear why the girl opened the door and got inside the vehicle.
“She went in there and went to sleep or was in there sleeping,” Police Lt. Orlando Rodriguez told the Brownsville Herald. “She could have easily gone in there and lost consciousness (from) the heat, which is something that unfortunately happens.”
The red SUV had just crashed into an oil tanker, flipped and caught on fire on a southern California freeway. But John McDonald apparently didn’t hesitate. He pulled over, stepped onto the SUV’s sunroof and yanked out the trapped 3-year-old girl.
Watch the video of the rescue here. McDonald, 41, just says it was the “natural thing to do.” “It’s kind of embarassing to talk about,” he told the Pasadena Star News. “Because you don’t do it for the attention.”
A flat tire on the SUV may have caused the vehicle to careen out of control on Wednesday in El Monte, Calif. The driver and her 9-year-old daughter had gotten out of the vehicle, but the younger child was still inside, buckled up and screaming hysterically. All three are fine, with only minor injuries.
A five-month-old Florida boy died after his mother accidently left him in her SUV when she went to work, police said. Gannon Werking had been in the car from about 8:30 a.m. Thursday until his mom discovered him the back seat of her gray Ford Edge at about 5 p.m., parked outside an office building, the Treasure Coast Palm reported.
A passerby called 911 after he saw Stephanie Werking “screaming hysterically” in the parking lot, authorities said. The high temperature in Vero Beach on Thursday was 90 degrees.