I know, this is Actually Infuriating, but … Also she didn’t just leave the now-dead kid in the car, she left two in there to die, but one survived. My guess: with brain damage. “Always Beautiful Medical Spa” FFS. Duck lips were totally worth it.
A baby died after his mother left him and his 2-year-old sibling inside a car while she was getting lip filler at a Bakersfield medical spa on a 101-degree day, authorities said.
It is estimated that Hernandez’s children were in the vehicle without air-conditioning for 90 minutes, wrote Det. Kyle McNabb, noting that the internal temperature of a car can rise to a blistering 143 degrees in just one hour of 100-degree weather.
Hernandez told police she found her baby foaming at the mouth and having an apparent seizure after emerging from her procedure at Always Beautiful Medical Spa, according to the police report. She frantically dialed 911, and both her children were transported to a hospital for treatment.
By the time her 1-year-old arrived at Adventist Health hospital, he wasn’t breathing, had no pulse, his lips were blue, and he had an internal body temperature of 107.2 degrees
However, her 2022 Toyota Corolla Hybrid is equipped with an automatic feature that turns the engine off if it has been left running for one hour while in park, police said. Police estimate that the engine turned off around 3 p.m. and the children were left without air conditioning until Hernandez returned around 4:30 p.m.>
Looks like she left the car on and it shut itself off. Still inexcusably stupid, but it wasn’t quite as brain dead as just deciding to leave them in a hot car in the middle of summer.
Her child died because of her stupidity and the over-engineering of the 2022 Toyota Corolla. c/fuckcars
Setting aside the ethics and children for a bit, I am disturbed by the idea of leaving a car running on a battery for an hour or longer. That is a good way to run down the battery and needing a AAA towing. Alternatively, leaving the engine on would use up gas. Plus, just general wear and tear on the vehicle.
Cars are expensive enough as it is.
This, too, is c/fuckcars.
I don’t understand how someone makes the logical leaps they do in these kinds of cases. Even from a purely selfish stand point, the risk of exactly what happened and the fallout are just not worth it to make that appointment right then and there or just have the kids sit in the lobby.
I must be losing my grip on reality, trying to reason why someone that thinks this way does the things they do.
Just get a baby sitter for 2 hours… Assuming it’s really that critical (which obviously this was not…)
So many steps were taken here that made no sense. Like why would the mom even think it was ok, and why did the office tell the mom “Yea they can wait in the lobby” like I assume she didn’t give an age or anything cause no office worker is going to knowingly allow this to happen, or allow a 1 and 2 year old to just sit in the lobby.
Your first sentence, you assumed logical. The average person is dumb. Straight up stupid.
Of course it was Bakersfield.
Unfortunately this is a pretty common occurrence. There was a big furor about it about a decade ago with a social media fad called the “hot car challenge” where adults would sit in hot cars turned off in the sun to see how long they could last in them ostensibly to build awareness of the problem, and there were all sorts of helpful tips and design changes made to cars and phones to try to make it more difficult to forget your kids in hot cars. Myself I wonder if any of it had any actual impact because surely the sort of people who leave their kids in hot cars aren’t the smartest and probably don’t keep up with safety PSAs about the issue.
The left shoe trick - throwing my shoe in the car next to the kid - probably saved my kid’s life more than once.
One kind of parents who have these tragedies are tired ones. Which is most parents with small children.
Edit: not relevant in this case, but I’ll take any chance to advertise the shoe trick.
I’ve been fucking tired as all hell, but a) I would not be driving a car with my child in it if I was so tired that I would forget I had a child. The fuck? That’s it. There’s no b). I would also fall asleep before I would forget I had a child. I cannot believe people really need a “trick” to help them remember they have a child. I just cannot relate.
As a parent myself it always boggles my mind that people can forget that they have kids in the car with them. I’m always in dad mode when I have any kids with me, so I’ve never even come close to forgetting a kid in the car. Forgetting to grab the kid’s backpack for school sure, but forgetting a whole child in the car?
The biggest thing that most of those people have in common is that they think it couldn’t happen to them.
I mean I’ve left the house without my glasses and I’m legally blind without them, so I can understand just how absentminded a human can get.
That’s the thing. We non-absent-minded people cannot relate to how absent-minded people can be. We do not understand.
It depends how often you drive without the kids.
If you don’t always drop the kids off yourself, it’s easy to get half way to work on autopilot before realising you meant to drop them off.
Sleep deprivation is a weird thing.
I felt the same, until I had my first lousy sleeper (child who had trouble sleeping due to minor health stuff). After a month of lost sleep, I couldn’t remember my own name sometimes. I read once that sleep deprivation is effectively brain damage, and after that experience, I believe it.
Plenty of smart parents fuck up while sleep deprived. That’s what made it such a popular tragedy to make PSAs about.
After having kids I totally understand how it can happen by mistake.
As a parent myself, I’m now doubly amazed at how few cases of forgetting happen. It’s so easy to do, and your brain is reduced to blomonge by sleep deprivation.
FYI, the “baby on board” signs aren’t generally meant as “don’t crash into me” signs, but “assume the driver is drunk and distracted” signs. Having been there, I try and give them plenty of space!
She has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is being held in a hot car with no AC in lieu of $1,080,000 bail, according to the Kern County district attorney’s office.
FTFY
I can barely handle being in a car that has been sitting in the sun for the 5 minutes it takes for the AC to get up to speed.
Now the 20-year-old mother has been charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and two felony counts of willful cruelty to a child, according to court records.
Is it not a specific crime in California/US to leave a child locked in a car?? We don’t fluff around with that in Australia. Also have exceptions to property damage laws for bystanders breaking windows.
It likely is going to fall under child neglect. I don’t know of an actual law specifically for locking a kid in a car.
As for the exceptions thing, that is the same in the states, it usually falls under law(s) categorized as “Good Samaritan laws”. They are moreso meant to protect the bystander if they see someone in peril but, breaking the window to save a kid or pet that is clearly in distress would normally fall under that. Personal injury also usually fall under these laws, like if you accidentally injured someone getting them to safety (like after a car accident) when it was clear they were in a dangerous location, it helps relieve the bystander liability.
It’s also supposed to be the reason that EMS/Fire/Police have Qualified immunity. because when the call to action arises, you don’t want your first responders first thought to be “How will this negatively affect me” you want it to be “how can I do the most in this situation”
Initial charges are just to justify holding a person, more charges can always be added later when the prosecutor has taken more time to examine the case.
If leaving a child in a car was a crime, you’d think they’d charge that up front?
Most criminal laws are at the state level so it would be a CA law.
UNATTENDED CHILD IN MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY ACT
There is no need for a seperate law in the event of harm or death since that would just fall under existing harm/death of a child laws.
Is this mildly infuriating? No. This is a joke comm, not a group cry.
grrr, im so mildly infuriated rn
Almost anyone can have children, but not everyone can be a parent.
One of my more controversial views is that having children should require a permit, like adoption currently requires, you’d need proof that you are able and willing to raise a child in the environment they deserve to be raised in.
Yes I realize what the downsides would be.
Personally, I think that’s the wrong approach. We’re very individualistic in the states and that leads to thinking that each child is the responsibility of their parent(s) and no one else, but if we had a more communal approach to raising children and acknowledged their wellbeing is a collective responsibility perhaps this could have been prevented. There’s a lot of personal dysfunction in this story, but that’s exactly the kind of thing that community can make up for.
We should have well funded and robust childcare services so that people who aren’t responsible enough to take care of children have something to lean on. In a sane society one person dropping the ball shouldn’t result in a child’s death. Does having a communal place where children are well cared for without the need for payment really defy the imagination? In a nation where we can’t even provide basic healthcare perhaps it defies expectation, but we will never achieve what we can’t imagine.
I’ve seen that as a bit by a comedian before as well.
Nature is healing. We don’t need every brain dead genetic abomination reproducing to make more brain dead abominations. Let Darwinism take its course. That’s what trumps mom should’ve done with captain bonespurs.
No child deserves to die that way. What a horrible take.
I have bad news for you about how much nature cares about being smart or a good parent
it must be on purpose at this point. how many times does this need to happen before people stop doing it?
Are you under the impression that every hot car death is caused by the same person?
Was it leavitt? Yea, no cumuppance will happen there
