Leaving Kids In Cars Alone

Leaving your kids alone in the car is a bad idea.

In some states it’s more than a poor choice but a criminal action. One California state senator is proposing a law to make it illegal for a parent to leave a child six or younger in a car for more than one minute. 

Of course, enforcement of these laws is based on the chance of an officer being present when a violation occurs.

This is not true in the recent case of Treffly Coyen.  This 36 year-old suburban Chicago mother drove to a Wal-Mart so her children could deposit the coins they collected in the Salvation Army bucket.

With her two-year-old Phoebe asleep in the backseat, Coyne parked her car in a loading zone in front of the store. The mother set the alarm, locked the car and walked with her older children to the bell ringer.

A few minutes later when Treffly returned to her vehicle, a community service officer charged her with child endangerment.   

How long does a child need to be out of a parent’s sight to constitute child endangerment?

Opponents to Coyne’s arrest argue the car never was out of the mother’s sight, so the child was not literally unattended. 

Regardless, statistics show thousands of children are injured and dozens die every year after being left unattended near or inside vehicles. In 2007 35 deaths of small children took place after over-stressed parents forgot their child was in the backseat of a hot vehicle. Since 1998 there have been 323 of these unnecessary tragedies.

Leaving children in the car alone is a hot topic. So here are some helpful answers to provide a cool perspective:

•NEVER leave your children alone in the car.  As parents we’ve all faced the temptation of leaving our kid in the car while we dash into the store for a carton of milk or to return a video rental.  You rationalize, “What can go wrong?  It’s for only a minute.” 

•It only takes a split second for a tragedy to take place. According to Consumer Reports cars heat up quickly. Even if it is only 70 degrees outside, a car can quickly heat to more than 120 degrees.

If you leave the car running, you're gambling your child won’t climb into the front seat and shift the car into “drive”.  Your kid can lock you out of the car and start playing with the dash buttons while you watch helplessly. A child could pull down the armrest in the back seat and crawl into the trunk.  Your young daughter may play with the power windows and get her head caught with the window crushed up against her wind pipe.  Even more dangerous, your child can let himself out of the car to go looking for you.

•Don’t use the weather or a sleeping child as an excuse to leave your kid alone in the car. Sure, the weather outside might be freezing cold or sweltering hot or your child is in a deep sleep.  Your errand will only take a minute or two. Even though you can rationalize your actions, you cannot undo the consequences if something tragic takes place.

•Contact the police if you notice a child left alone in a car. If the child seems to be in distress or unconscious, call 911 and ask the dispatcher to provide you instructions as to how to release the endangered child from the car and how to care for the child until the paramedics arrive.

Remember this . . . Never leave your child alone in a car, not even for a minute.

JOHN TESH
Email John:   johnsblog@teshmedia.com

Don't forget. My new hardcover book Intelligence For Your Life: Powerful Lessons for Personal Growth is now on sale. You can purchase a copy on line by visiting Barnes & Noble.

Comments

[susan]

why is it that we always have to make rules and regulations on things that happen to people in order to protect ourselves from harm. pretty soon, in the united states, it is going to be a crime to walk out in your front yard. punish the offenders and leave the rest of us alone. laws like that are senseless and cause lots of families heartache because of some over-excertive policeman or security personel.

[An American]

Treffly Coyne is a fine mother who happened to be out on an excursion planned by her children to donate to charity. A lesson we would all do better to be taught by her kids. Unfortunately the government, very concerned about the welfare of her child stepped in. Somehow the officer saw that a sleeping two year old in a warm and safe locked car with the alarm activated would be better off without the mother who cares for her.

The police would not listen to her story, they refused to listen to witnesses, they did not investigate by going into the store to look at the security video.

Instead, they arrested Treffly Coyne, took custody of her two year old child, broke up her family, and most disturbing, the police abandoned three little girls at the Walmart… left them to their own luck, crying on the curb.

All because the government decided Treffly Coynes family needed its “protection.”

Her children were never in any danger until the representatives of the government showed up.

The police chief of Crestwood, Timothy Sulikowski, knew that there was no evidence that Ms. Coyne had done anything wrong, yet he still decided she needed to be charged and prosecuted.

TO COVER UP THE HORRIBLE MISTAKES AND MISCONDUCT OF THE CRESTWOOD POLICE.

For 97 days she was labled a child abuser by the state, investigated by the DCFS or CPS, paid expensive legal bills and suffered the public humiliation brought on by the unsubstantiated charges of the Crestwood Police.

Even when the prosecutor dropped the charges for lack of evidence, the police chief and Mayor Robert Stranczek continued to make public statements against Treffly Coyne.

Treffly Coyne is now suing the Village of Crestwood, police officers James Ciukaj, Forrest Wondolowski and Angel Brudnicki in federal court.

She would have preferred to have won in criminal court.

All she asked for was an apology and that the charges would be dropped. Thousands of dollars later, and hundreds of thousands of posts on the internet, the Crestwood Police cannot even give her that.

A terrible mistake was made that night at the Walmart and the Crestwood Police and Mayor Stranczek refuse to acknowlege it. Until they do, all citizens, all families in Crestwood are in danger of these kinds of police abuse.

Her fight is not over. The federal Judge will hear the case and has the power to direct the Crestwood Police to make changes in their policies and procedures.

Hopefully she will prevail in her fight, which is a fight for all of our civil rights and her case will create stronger boundaries between the family and the police.

It was wrong to arrest that mother and subject her children to witness in terror the actions of the police.

What is more wrong is that the woman has to fight such wrongdoing in federal court.

A victory for Treffly Coyne will be a victory for all American Families. The civil rights she is fighting for our your civil rights as well.