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Subscribe to RSSA 16-month-old Indiana toddler suffers a seizure after being left in an SUV in which the temperature hits 124 degrees. A 4-month-old girl dies after being forgotten in a vehicle for hours.
Dozens of such heat-related injuries and deaths happen each year, and in the vast majority of such cases, parents don't intentionally leave their children in the car, said Janette Fennell, founder and president of KidsAndCars.org, a nonprofit organization that aims to prevent injuries to children around motor vehicles.
"The lion's share of these incidents happen to the best of parents," Fennell told msnbc.com. "The biggest mistake someone can make is thinking it can't happen to you."
Both of the incidents above occurred within an hour of each other in the Indianapolis area on Saturday, a day when temperatures rose about 100 degrees.
The 16-month-old toddler left the hospital on Sunday and was released to her grandmother's custody, NBC station WTHR in Indianapolis reported.
Meg Trueblood is charged with neglect after leaving her daughter in her SUV to go shopping.
The toddler’s mother, Meg Trueblood, 30, was bonded out of jail Sunday after being charged with felony neglect of a dependent.
Police say Trueblood left the child in her SUV for more than an hour to go shopping at a clothing store. Another shopper discovered the child and called 911. Police broke the passenger window and brought the child into the store looking for her guardian. The girl suffered a heat-related seizure after being pulled from vehicle.
The temperature inside the vehicle read 124 degrees, according to a press release by the Fishers Police Department.
Josh Stryzinski told investigators he didn't know his four-month-old baby was in the car until he discovered her after being in his parents house for a few hours.
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Trueblood's two other children were allowed to stay with her at home.
In another incident just one county over, the father of the four-month-old girl is facing a charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in death. He was released after posting bond Sunday.
Greenville police responded to a call saying an infant was left in a car for some time, but when they arrived they learned the child had been taken to the hospital by her grandfather.
The father, Joshua Stryzanski, 18, told police he thought someone was watching the baby and wasn’t aware she was still sitting in her car seat with the vehicle's windows rolled up, according to a police affidavit.
When he realized he had to go pick up the baby's mother from work, he discovered her in the car.
Investigators said the temperature outside was 104 degrees when they responded to the call.
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According to the affidavit, the base of the car seat tested 119 degrees after a door had been left open for almost two hours. Investigators said the baby had visible third-degree burns on her legs and arms.
If convicted, Stryzanski could face a sentence of 20 to 50 years and a $10,000 fine. Trueblood could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
According to KidsAndCars.org, an average of 38 children die each year from heat-related causes from being trapped inside motor vehicles.
The nonprofit has tracked such deaths since 1998. In 2011, 33 children died from vehicular heat stroke deaths, down from 49 the previous year, according to KidsAndCars.org.
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Very happy to hear that the 16 month old survived and has been released from the hospital. But I'm just sickened by the little baby that died; 3rd degree burns on her legs? That little baby died a absolutely horrible death. RIP
And good parents would never leave a child in a car. I don't car how busy you are. As a parent of very young children, who doesn't check to make sure they didn't forget anything. Here's a thought stop thinking about yourself and how the world affects you and be a parent.
I don't want to hear good parents. a good parent would sacrifice themselves for their kids not the other way around.
Perhaps the parents should suffer the same fate as the children.
In essence these children were left to literally be baked in the car. Each of the accused should get the maximum time in jail and anything less is deemed justice not served in my book.
How's about they get baked in a car for twenty or thirty minutes, then perform community service as parking lot walkers who stroll around in the 115 degree weather looking for other idiots's kids and dogs locked in closed cars. Do that for a year or two.
After that I'd say their debt is paid.
Is frying in hell a punishment option for these two? Geez, what the heck were they thinking? Oh, wait, they weren't thinking. They're idiots.
Disgusting,absolutely,disgusting.I cannot believe they are still walking the streets.WTH....
I still cannot fathom this. I have two kids and cannot think under what circumstances I would forget they were in the car. People need to unplug and engage in the real world. How many of the parents who forget to drop the kid off at daycare and drive to work with the kid in the car are messing around with their phones? If you aren't the parent who normally takes the kid somewhere, put your stuff in the back seat. Of course my kids are generally pretty chatty so I'm not likely to forget they are there. But even they weren't, I put them in the carseat and check on them in the mirror when they are being quiet because after making sure I'm not about to get hit by someone else on the road, I am concerned about my kids as the second most important thing on my mind when in the car.
Amazing that people put their child in the car and then promptly forget that they are parents.
Some things just boggle the mind. How do you live with yourself after something like that?
If I ever found a child left alone in a car I would first call 911 and after i removed the child I would break every window out or the car for starters.
After all I needed to remove the child.
This is just so sad all around. These parents cannot possibly forgive themselves no matter what punishment is dished out.
Greenfield, Indiana...not Greenville. Still in need of an editor, it seems.
You know, I actually believe the guy who looks like he just power-toked a quarter ounce when he says he forgot the baby was still in the car.
An 18 year old father? Poor kid left in the car.
My guess is heroin...it is a scourge among young people here in my area. A friend of mine has a 21 year old daughter who I could see doing something like this while she is blown out of her mind on heroin. Fortunately the grandparents have her children since she is too busy shooting up to take care of them.
I don't believe there is a valid excuse for leaving your child in a car by themselves anytime. If the child can't operate the windows and doors they are too young to be in the car unsupervised. I hve suffered from Heat Stroke myself and it is a horrible way to think that a child that can't get themselves free should die in such a way. There is just no acceptable excuse for leaving an infantor even a four year old by themselves in a car. I wish these people could be locked in a car they can't escape and sit there while the temperature climbs and climbs to 120 or even 150 degrees. It wuldbe a fitting way for them to die.
There is a difference, I believe, between the woman who left her kid in the car to go shopping, knowing full well what she was doing and Cheech there who was so stoned he didn't even realize that he left the baby in the car. Intent matters...
Anyone who uses drugs while being responsible for an infant is just as guilty as the mother who went clothes shopping. It is a out of sight out of mind with no sense of responsibility. They are the same parents who want their children to stay in their rooms to play. Parents who do not want to be bothered with their children. To leave a child in a car alone is a way for the I ,me and myself generation to have a free time away from the child. This parents want their own space so they can act like irresponsible children, and to do what they want, whenever they want too.
konwingly leaving your child in a car is criminal negligence. Forgetting you left your child in a car because you were too stoned, while incredibly irresponsible, is not.
Getting stoned while having your infant in your care is criminally negligent! How do you know that shopping mama was not stoned??? If she was, then in your eyes she is not responsible.
I truly have tried, in the interest of "fairness", to understand how one can forget their child is in a vehicle. A few years ago, a mother was convicted of neglect when her child was left in her hot car as she worked an entire day in her office. She did a talk-show circuit to try to explain how she managed to forget her child was in the car and explained then that she wasn't the "usual" parent responsible for taking her child to day care and had to do so on that fateful day. She apparently had a business meeting that morning, had to get the morning's refreshments to the office, and promptly forgot her child was in the car. She implored of us, as watchers of the show, to not judge parents too harshly in these cases and tried valiantly to get us to understand how these things happen. The nurse in me wanted to feel compassion for her and, for a brief moment, I do. I realize that these parents are going to have to live with what they've done for the rest of their lives. However, my compassion is very short-lived.
I am the parent of two now-grown children. When they were small, my job required that I work different shifts and my then-husband and I had to share the responsibility of making sure the our children were taken to our day care providers. Our children were far enough apart in ages that we, at times, each had one child to take to two different locations. While my mind would wander some as I pondered the day ahead of me, and while my child slept in the car seat in the back seat of my vehicle, there was never a time that I simply forgot that my child was in the car. No matter how hard I try to justify that "I became distracted and was not the usual parent responsible" argument, I just can't. If our fast-paced society has become so hectic that parents are able to forget the most important thing for which they are responsible then it's time to rethink our priorities. I'm not sure how the father in this article thought someone else was watching that baby. If, indeed, he was "stoned" as has been suggested, that opens up a whole different topic for discussion!
To think that a mother would purposely leave a child in a car to go shopping is just unfathomable to me.
I have been following these types of stories for years, and they are getting more frequent as people become and stay more connected with their cell phones, etc. I abolutely disagree with the statement in the article that says "The lion's share of these incidents happen to the best of parents". If this is the "best of parents", then this country is in sad, sad shape. I myself have raised 3 children over the last 30 years, and never once did I even come close to not remembering that one of them was in the car when they were infants or toddlers. That behavior is INEXCUSABLE and those parents should be punished to the full extent of the law. Yes, having to live with the thought of what they did will be hard, but that alone is not punishment enough. People need to get back to the real world and enjoy life instead, and pay more attention to the part of life that matters most - family and real friends, not your connected social media friends or your job when you are away from the office.
There are some simple steps you can take to make sure you are not one of those parents who forgets - the easiest is to put your purse/briefcase/phone in the back of the car next to the baby's seat,so that when you go to retrieve what you will need for your day at work/shopping etc., you will notice if the carseat is occupied.
I truly do see how parents - not necessarily these parents in particular, but parents in general - can become preoccupied and especially if their routine is disrupted, think that they already dropped the kid at daycare or forget that they were doing it this morning, not dad, etc. Most of us turn to autopilot when we enter our cars for the routine drive to work - how many times have you turned toward work without thinking when you actually were heading somewhere else that day? Once in the car we start thinking about the day ahead, the meetings planned, the crisis of the day to confront, the due dates, etc.
Once when my twins were in kindergarten, I got a call to come pick one of them up at school because he was sick. I was rather flummoxed and preoccupied with worry, and I was actually in my garage, car keys in hand, before I remembered that my napping daughter was still upstairs in bed.
I'm certainly not trying to excuse anyone, bu he point I want to make is that simple precautions and changes to routine can, in the end, save you from becoming a parent trying to explain how you could forget a child - and keeping things you will need for the day next to the carseat is about the easiest, low-tech way to assure your child's safety.
my opinion- I agree completely. My kids are now 2 and 5, and are never both quiet at one time, but I made it a habit from the start to check the car seat(s) each and every time I got out of the car, even if there was no possible way I'd have him/them with me. I have left the house and found myself driving towards work, instead of towards daycare first, while on autopilot, so I have an inkling of how this sort of thing could happen (although purposely leaving them in the car, or being to drugged/drunk to remember, is a completely different story.)
With this statement you are saying that your purse/briefcase/phone are too important to your day to forget, but not your children. Children are easy to forget, but not your "stuff"!!!!
So they just forget they have a kid?
After they cause a couple of bongs to burn out they forget most things, like what day it is, and how to drive a car.
This woman still has custody of her other two children?! How long will it be before she decides to go shopping and leaves them locked in the car?
this is B/S n
so glad the 16 month old is out of hospital but how in the hell can any parent forget thier baby they leave her in a car. something not just right with this situation. makes no sense makes a person wonder if they done it on purpose.
Man, I hate reading stories like this since these deaths/injuries are 100% preventable by just using common sense. I was watching some news report on 'tips for not forgetting your kids in the car' and it actually said "Put your cell phone next to the car seat" Why? Because you are bound to remember your cell phone. REALLY?
My point, exactly, in post #16.2 above. You can forget your child, but not your important "stuff"!!!!!!
What did she say, parents don't intentionally leave their kids in the car. I suppose the kids are at fault then. Nobody and I mean nobody forgets their kids in the car. I have yet to hear of any of these parents being remorseful. And to top it off they let this woman have her two kids, I guess it was not enough that she almost killed her daughter, let her have the other two, to retry it. Sounds to me like Janelle is on the side of the parents, who endanger their children on the soul purpose of I forgot they were in the car, on a hot day, unsupervised.
REALLY!!!!!! Are you kidding me how do you forget a child in your car besides the fact your a dumb-ass. Why in the world would media defend this saying it could happen to the best of parents bull@!$%#. It is completely unacceptable and these people should be punished. How do you think the poor child or baby felt as it was dying OMG!!!!!! This is what is wrong with our world no one wants to except responsibility for their actions.
Absolutely! Gayle, yours is the first response that mirrors my own!!
I hope they both go to jail. Complete and total f****** morons!!! I'd like to leave them in hot cars!!!
My prayers go out to these unfortunate children. No doubt the two parents involvd will be living with the consequences for the rest of their lives.. I once came across a child locked in a hot car and had to contact the police for help. That mother also was shopping and had forgotten the passage of the clock. It seems times have not changed over the decades and some parents still do not understand, that the little precious gifts of life entrusted to their care, are more important then ANYTHING in the world. It only takes a few moments to make sure you are a wise steward over that life to avoid this kind of problem. The wise will seek to learn from the mistakes of others around them.The foolish will stumble over the same pitfalls and rocks others have before them, too busy self absorbed to bother sparing a few seconds looking ahead. God help any who depend on them.
I feel so bad for the mother of that 4-month old baby. She was trying to do the right thing by working and the person who was supposed to be watching her child killed her. But I would be interested to know whether she made sure her baby's father knew the child was in the car.