Latest news with #preventabletragedy
Yahoo
a day ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
At least 7 children have died in a hot car in the U.S. this year. Why this happens, according to experts.
Seven children have died in hot cars across the U.S. so far this year. In March, a 4-month-old who was supposed to be dropped off at a babysitter's home in New Jersey was forgotten in a minivan for two hours. Just last week in North Carolina, a 7-month-old was also left inside a hot minivan. It's a preventable tragedy that makes dozens of headlines every spring and summer. Nearly 40 children die in hot cars each year, according to data compiled by Kids and Car Safety, a national nonprofit that fights for child safety in and around vehicles. Since 1990, more than 1,000 kids have died from overheating in a car somewhere in the U.S. In 2024, 39 kids died in hot cars, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), down from 2018 and 2019, when a record-breaking 53 children died in hot cars. Excluding car crashes, heatstroke is the leading cause of death in vehicles for children 14 and younger. The majority of hot car deaths happen because the driver forgets the child is in the car, according to the NHTSA. The federal agency has found that 47% of these deaths happen when the caregiver has forgotten to drop those children off at day care or school, and it usually happens at the end of the workweek, on Thursdays or Fridays. The second leading cause is when unsupervised children get into unattended vehicles on their own. 'The majority of parents and caregivers are misinformed and would like to believe that they could never 'forget' their child in a vehicle,' Kids and Car Safety notes. 'The most dangerous mistake a parent or caregiver can make is to think leaving a child alone in a vehicle could never happen to them or their family.' Children who get trapped in cars suffer from pediatric vehicular heatstroke, which happens when the child's body temperature rises because of the internal temperature of a car. For example, if the outside temperature is around 70°F, the inside of a car's temperature will increase to over 100°F within the first 30 minutes. A child's body will overheat three to five times faster than an adult's body, according to the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. More often than not, caregivers leave children in hot cars by accident, which is why they're usually not charged with murder, David Diamond, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida, told Yahoo News. Diamond has studied cases of children dying in hot cars for 20 years. 'These are not parents who don't care about their kids,' Diamond said. 'Everyone can relate to forgetting. It's something that we all do.' Diamond says parents leave their kids in overheating cars because of habit and routine. The 'habit brain memory system' kicks in when people perform repetitive tasks almost automatically or without a second thought. Diamond has said that knowing how to ride a bike or tie shoelaces are examples of habit brain memory. 'You're driving home from work, and you've done it hundreds of times by yourself,' Diamond explained to Yahoo News. 'It's your brain's habit memory system that takes you from work to home without even having to think about it. You drive straight home.' Even if parents feel confident that they will remember their child is in the back seat and needs to be dropped off somewhere before they get to the office, the habit brain memory system can overpower that new addition to a routine they've done hundreds of times without the child, Diamond said. He emphasized this is not a 'syndrome' or rare mental disorder, but something most people experience because it's how the brain functions. It does not mean the parent or caregiver doesn't love their child. ''Forgetting' really is the right word,' he said of situations where parents leave their kids in hot cars. But 'forgetting' the child because of routine doesn't alleviate any severity or pain from the experience for those parents. 'It truly is a form of forgetting. And that's as simple as it is. It is a catastrophe." Creating relevant safety laws is crucial to helping parents protect their children in these situations, Amber Rollins, director of Kids and Car Safety, told Yahoo News. Rollins cited data dating back to 1990 that shows children died less frequently from airbags while sitting in the front seat of a car after states made it illegal for kids under 13 to ride in the passenger seat. (It also wasn't required in all states for kids to ride in car seats until 1985.) But as more children were placed in the back seats of cars to avoid airbag deaths, kids were instead dying of heatstroke because they were forgotten in the car. This is why groups like Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Safe Kids Worldwide, the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association and Kids and Car Safety are advocating for it to be mandatory for car manufacturers to build in radar systems that help notify parents if their kids are still sitting in the back seat. Part of the argument for why radar should be built into the cars — instead of tools parents can order online and install themselves— is, as Diamond told Yahoo News, because most people do not believe they would ever forget their child in the back seat of the car and wouldn't buy it. 'The best kind of solution available right now is radar detection,' Rollins said. 'It's a little chip that goes into the headliner or the roof of the vehicle, and it detects micro-movements. … it can tell the difference between an adult and a child based on micro-movements … and so, effectively, it can tell, 'Hey, there's a kid in here and I don't see a grown-up; we've got a problem.'' Kids and Car Safety coordinated with NHTSA on the federal Hot Cars Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives in 2021. The act then evolved into a provision under the Child Safety section in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in November 2021. The provision requires that the Secretary of Transportation 'issue a rule that requires all new passenger motor vehicles to be equipped with a child safety alert system.' But, according to Rollins, the NHTSA has not made enough effort to put this rule into effect across all car manufacturers. Some manufacturers do have 'Rear Occupant Alert' systems in place for certain vehicle productions — it's in multiple Hyundai and Kia vehicles — but Rollins thinks the NHTSA should do more. A spokesperson for the NHTSA told Yahoo News that the organization is still conducting studies to ensure that the radar devices currently available are actually effective. A concern is that if the technology is faulty and alerts parents over every small thing in the back of their car, parents might feel inclined to turn it off, Rollins said. The technology needs to exclusively flag if children are unattended in the back of a car. Rollins argued that there are existing detection devices that have passed multiple tests and should be installed. 'The agency will continue to test additional systems as they become available to the public,' the NHTSA spokesperson said. It's common for parents to believe they would never forget their children in the back seat of their car. Here are some tips from Sanford Health on how to ensure you remember your child is in the back. Put something in the back seat of your car with your child that you need before leaving the vehicle, like a cell phone, one of your shoes or an employee badge — something you need when you arrive at your destination. Keep a stuffed animal in your child's car seat and move it to the front of the car while driving your child as a reminder that they are in the car with you. Ask your babysitter or child care provider to give you a call if your child is expected to show up somewhere but hasn't arrived. Always check that your car is locked and inspect it before leaving the premises — even if you're in a rush. This can help you double-check nobody is in the back seat and addresses the second cause of children dying in hot cars, which is when they climb in unattended and unsupervised.
Associated Press
12-05-2025
- Associated Press
Missouri's attorney general has sued a utility over an explosion of a home that killed a 5-year-old
LEXINGTON, Mo. (AP) — Missouri's attorney general sued a natural gas company Monday over the explosion of a home in a small town that killed a 5-year-old boy, accusing the utility of violating a state safety law. Attorney General Andrew Bailey's lawsuit came less than a week after federal investigators said in a preliminary report that a Liberty Utilities employee failed to mark a section of a gas line before another company drilled into it while installing a fiber optic cable. The April 9 explosion destroyed a home in Lexington, a town of about 4,500 people about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of Kansas City. The blast killed Alistair Lamb and injured his 10-year-old sister, Cami, and their father, Jacob Cunningham. Bailey's lawsuit, filed in Lafayette County Circuit Court, alleges that a Liberty employee 'falsely' told the company installing the fiber optic cable that all gas lines had been marked. The lawsuit called the explosion a 'preventable tragedy.' Bailey said Liberty violated a state law designed to ensure that digging for underground water, sewer and telecommunications lines is safe. Bailey is seeking a $10,000 fine for each day the section of gas line wasn't marked and wants a special monitor appointed to ensure that the company complies with the law. The company said in a statement that as a party to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board's ongoing investigation, it cannot comment much about the explosion or the lawsuit. Liberty said it will continue to help families affected by the explosion and 'support broader recovery efforts.' 'Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers, employees, and communities,' the statement said. 'We remain fully committed to working with authorities and regulatory agencies to support the ongoing investigation into the cause of the incident.'
CBS News
12-05-2025
- CBS News
A year later, Malinda Hoagland's family faces "uphill battle" but believes change in Pennsylvania is possible
The month of May marks one year of pain and loss for the family of 12-year-old Malinda Hoagland. Prosecutors in Chester County, Pennsylvania, announced Malinda's death on May 12, 2024. Prosecutors said Malinda was tortured and starved for months, murdered at the hands of her father and his girlfriend. The horrifying case drew national attention, and CBS News Philadelphia quickly began looking at the system and missed warning signs. "We don't want this to happen to anyone else" Malinda Hoagland's half-sisters say they were told the wait for information would be lengthy. The first-degree murder case against Malinda's father, Rendell Hoagland, and his girlfriend, Cindy Warren, won't go to trial for several more months. While family says their pain is terrible, their work focuses on doing what can be done to prevent a gruesome case like this from happening again. Jamie Hoagland and Emily Lee have been patient. They've also been busy, challenging a system they say should have done more to prevent the prolonged torture and murder of Malinda. "Now that this has happened to our sister, we don't want this to happen to anyone else," Jamie Hoagland said. Lawsuit argues that what happened to Malinda was preventable Prosecutors allege that after the 12-year-old was removed from school in late 2023, she was subjected to cruel punishment, beatings, bizarre exercises and starved for weeks on end inside a home in West Caln Township. "It's clear the child was being starved and abused over a period of time that could have been prevented," attorney Alexandria Crouthamel, who represents Malinda's half-sisters, said. Crouthamel is suing Chester County Children, Youth and Families, the Coatesville Area School District and other government agencies. They allege that after the school district reported its own concerns to the county in late 2023, CYF dropped the ball. They say Malinda, who then enrolled in a cyber school program, was permitted to live with Warren despite the fact that Warren did three to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to child endangerment. Warren was convicted in Monroe County before moving with Malinda to Chester County. Crouthamel said no one physically checked in on Malinda, as she was being tortured and starved. "It didn't occur," Crouthamel said. "Now, we have a deceased child. That's the issue here." "Riding the same roller coaster" Malinda's family has been pressing Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and state lawmakers to create a public database that would track those convicted of child abuse and endangerment, as they move from county to county. Numerous requests to the governor's office for comment for this report were not returned. "Here we are with the year anniversary, so we are riding the same roller coaster," Lee said. "Obviously, there was someone in Malinda's home who had previously harmed another child, so to what degree was that disclosed?" Cathleen Palm, founder of the Center for Children's Justice, said. Palm has worked for decades to make changes and improvements to how Pennsylvania investigates instances of child abuse. "First, I would say that we should be approaching these instances in a more timely way when reviewing them," Palm said. Palm said the delays like this often discourage meaningful change. A spokesperson for Chester County declined to comment on the status of its internal review of Children, Youth and Families, writing, "Given that this is an ongoing legal matter, and due to the confidential nature of child protection cases such as this, we cannot comment or share information on any aspects of the Malinda Hoagland case at this time." "It's an uphill battle" Child welfare experts told CBS News Philadelphia it's possible the right laws and protections are in place, but were unfortunately used improperly or not at all. "There is another Malinda out there today," Palm said, "and so, are we sure today, for the next Malinda we have the right tools in the toolbox?" "This is a problem we have, and whether it's changing the laws or changing the system, changing the database where these flags are raised, educating people to what to look for, it's an uphill battle," Lee said. Malinda's sisters have also started a nonprofit in her honor. Attorneys for the family said their lawsuit won't move forward until the criminal trial is over. That may not be until next year. CBS News Philadelphia reached out to the Chester County District Attorney's Office for comment, but did not hear back. Attorneys for Rendell Hoagland and Cindy Warren declined to comment. Both have pleaded not guilty.
