Penndel, PA – A toddler left in a hot minivan outside his suburban Philadelphia day care center has died of hyperthermia.
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Bucks County authorities say 2-year-old Daniel Slutsky was in a locked vehicle with the windows up for six hours Wednesday, when temperatures were in the 80s.
Coroner Joseph Campbell says Daniel had been driven to the center in Penndel (PEN’-dul) by a neighbor who operates it. Campbell says Rimma Shvartsman forgot about Daniel and returned in the late afternoon to find him unresponsive.
Campbell has ruled the boy’s death because of an elevated body temperature an accident.
District Attorney Michelle Henry says no charges have been filed and an investigation continues.
Shvartsman’s lawyer, Michael Mustokoff, says the boy’s death is a “tragic accident” and his client is cooperating with the investigation.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer Today, the neighbors’ cul-de-sac of tidy townhomes was a portrait of sorrow. Shvartsman’s residence was dark and silent, while a stream of mourners came and went at the Slutskys’ home, where the family was sitting shiva.
Hate to say it, and please be gentle with me for saying it. Just think about it. The kid was probably belted in a car seat. The woman would not have forgotten about the kid if he was just in a regular seat belt. For years we had our kids in regular seat belts and it was fine. I am convinced that car seats are responsible for a lot of these deaths. There are no statistics comparing seat belts versus car seats.. but let’s think about it….
B’DE horrible tragedy….
I can understand leaving the groceries in the back of a car or forgetting to bring in your briefcase from work but a child??
I find this story very hard to believe. Somebody whose job involves being responsible for children on a daily basis, forgets about a child in her own car. Hamokom Yenachem the parents and the family.
Horrible tradegy!!
Daven ! Daven to Hashem with all your might, that you never ever forget a child in a car. The word here is ‘forget’., and only our father in heaven.has the ability to make sure you and i NEVER forget.
I’m not suggesting but i do hope she has the sense for the best in her interest to resign from her post and do some job other than having a responsibility on kids.
That’s just horrible. To the authors of comments 1 and 2, your comments are extremely thoughtless. If the child fell asleep and she did not regularly take him with her, I can see how this happened. I imagine she is suffering as much as the family who lost the child. This is tragic for all involved.
This happened in lakewood many yrs ago…it could happen to anyone. R”l
How is that, the co-owner of the center, did not notice that the baby is missing during the whole day feeding, sleeping, changing diapers, does not make any sense
bd”e – just curious how thekid had an autopsy if he’s jewish?
This was clearly negligence, and some would call it criminal negligence. There is simply no valid excuse for this–even if it has happened before, in other communities.
It may have been a gezeira from Shamayim, but b’dinei matah this person was negligent.
When one has a child in the back seat, it’s a good idea to keep the windows open, just in case the electrical system goes. Talking to a child is also a good idea.
It’s also a good idea to have a system wherein kids are counted at the day care system.
I shudder every time I hear one of these horrible stories. I thank Hashem that I raised nine kids, and even sent some of them to day care while I worked, and none of them were ever left in a hot car. In fact I never heard of a baby left in a hot car in the years when my kids were young. Why does it seem to happen so often now?
I even let my kids ride in the back of the station wagon without any restraints.
what a terrible terrible tragedy.. hashem yishmur.. its unbelievable that ppl forget a child in car seat but being tht the survey shows 15/25 such deaths a yr looks like it is possible 2 forget.. any1 who puts a child in back seat in a car seat when no1 sits nxt 2 the child in back must make some kind of simen or what 2 make sure he takes the child out w/him.. & in these days its abt time a company should come out w/a car seat tht beeps & flashes if child is in it when u put the car & park so u remember 2 take the child!!!! vhashem yishmur tzeiseinee uvoieinee m’ateh v’ad oilem!!
Comments 1 & 2 are grossly naïve and show little understanding of human psychology. People make mistakes. This is a horrible, horrible accident that nobody should ever go through.
My sister nearly died in a car almost 18 years ago. We were in the country and when we arrived to the bungalow colony there was a fight among the kids – who would be first. We had visitors and assumed that my sister had gone to play with the kids. A little while later someone came to inquire where she is and we answered that she’s playing with the kids. A few minutes passed and he again asked where she is. At this point I was sent to go look for her. I didn’t find her playing with the kids so i retraced my steps. I found her in the car crying, her body hot and red.
She was placed in a bathtub with cold water – note: not too cold and definitely not freezing as this can shock the body. BH we caught her in the nick of time. Had this person not persisted CV the ending would have been the same as the story above. Hashem sent him as a shliuch to save her.
The most common causes of why a child is left in a car is:
1) Children fighting about getting out first, ultimately someone stays behind.
2) There are a few kids in the car and one of them fell asleep
3) Not the usual parent or guardian dropping the kid off at the babysitter or school.
Solutions for those that usually don’t have kids in the car:
1) Have a baby bag up front so you see it and it reminds you of the kid in the back.
2) Put something that you will need next to the kid exp. briefcase, hat, jacket…
Remember a car can very quickly heat up.
Now adays when people run after things they don’t need with money they don’t have to please people they don’t like. This was for sure an accident hashem yerachem.
#4 may be right..
For many parents, the baby’s car seat has long been a magical spot where even the fussiest infant would finally drift off to a peaceful slumber.
But a Quebec coroner who examined the sudden death of a two-month-old boy has issued a stark warning: Parents who leave their newborns semi-reclined in car seats for hours on end are putting them at higher risk of sudden death by asphyxiation.
Coroner Jacques Robinson published the warning yesterday in his report on a baby’s death in a car seat one year ago at a family home in the Montreal suburb of Pointe-Claire.
The colicky baby’s mother found the car seat was an effective way to get the boy to drift off, so she left him in it overnight, with the seat and baby placed in his bassinette. The mother rose at 3 a.m. to feed the baby and again at 6 a.m. when he started to cry.
When the boy did not wake at his usual 7 a.m. time, the mother discovered he wasn’t breathing and had white, waxy skin. The boy’s parents and emergency responders tried to resuscitate him without success.
“Car seats are named that for a reason. They’re not for the house, they’re not meant to replace a crib, and they’re not meant to be left in a bassinette,” Dr. Robinson said in an interview.
Properly installed infant car seats are set at a precise angle, usually 45 degrees, to balance head support against safety in a collision.
But more than a couple of hours sitting at any angle is too much for a newborn, Dr. Robinson said.
“A baby sitting, or semi-sitting, even at an angle of 30 degrees, does not have the strength to keep his head straight, and it’s easy for his airway to be blocked.”
Dr. Robinson emphasized that a car seat is still vital for transporting babies in vehicles but he said long trips should be broken up every couple of hours. Even babies need a break to stretch and change positions, he said.
“A couple hours is fine. Overnight is not fine,” Dr. Robinson said.
Researchers at the coroner’s office went back 15 years analyzing babies who died from sudden infant death syndrome and found 15 to 20 deaths might have been triggered by sleeping sitting or semi-reclined.
Separate studies by Quebec and New Zealand researchers in 2006 analyzed deaths among babies under 12 months and found an increased likelihood of death in car seats.
The Quebec study examined unexplained deaths from 1991 to 2000. Ten of 409 unexplained deaths among children under 12 months occurred while the tots were in “sitting positions.” But the rate rose dramatically to five out of 49 among babies under one month old. Dr. Robinson acknowledged the numbers are small but he argued the deaths are easily preventable.
The warning about car seats adds to a growing list of warnings about potential causes of sudden infant death syndrome. Parents are now advised to avoid letting infants sleep on their stomachs, or in cribs crowded with soft objects. Sleeping in the same bed as adults or other children is another no-no.
In cases of suspicious deaths where other causes have to be eliminated, an autopsy can be required by law.
I urge everyone to do an online search and find that Washington Post series on the problem of kids being left in cars. It opened my eyes and filled me with compassion for the people, often parents of the child, to whom this has happened. And yes, it is happening more often, in part because of the legal requirements to move children and carseats to the back seat, and the way that infant carseats are positioned backward. I’m not saying that the answer is to do away with the rule, because they do save many lives. But people have to be extra careful to stay focused on any children they have in the car. There is talk of developing an alarm system that goes off if you seem to be leaving the vehicle and there is still a certain amount of weight in the child safety seat(s). This seems like a good idea.
Meanwhile, I will have the bereaved family as well as the neighbor/daycare worker in my prayers. This is a tragic loss for all of them and none of their lives will be the same.
Please do not judge this poor mother, who will have to suffer the consequences of her mistake for the rest of her life. She did not do this on purpose. No doubt we’ve all done stupid things when we were really tired – thankfully none of us has had such a tragedy occur. Let’s be grateful, not judgmental.
It is terrible……..The women shoud to be in jail for the deth of little boy. This boy may be fall a sleep in a morning and she forgot about him…. I just unbelivable…to forget baby in the car for 6 hours.. you can forget about 5-10 min. but not 6 hours. She needs to be in a jail for that. The kids in day care were plaing outside while this little boy was daing in a car, no water and no body could hear his scream and cry…..a horrible death.. This is a terrible tragedy to the family who lost this child. How this women can live her life after what happened and what if her child could be at the same situation.
Bd’e. What I don’t understand is, this happens every year, why people don’t learn from it ?
In addition why people WON’T FORGET to take out the ICE CREAM from the car but a precious child is forgotten ?
happens all the time just usually they come back to the car before its too late
Unfortunately, a similar situation happened in Maryland last week – by the parents.
The name of the family has not been realeased. As per the Baltimore Sun:
“A 23-month-old Howard County girl died of heatstroke after one of her parents unintentionally left the child strapped in her car seat in front of the family’s Ellicott City residence last week. Neither the identity of the child nor her parents was released. Police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said Tuesday that no criminal charges will be filed. She said that emergency responders were called to the home about 5 p.m. June 25, eight to nine hours after the child had been placed in the car seat. Llewellyn said a “change of routine” caused the parent to forget that the child was in the car. Llewellyn said the Police Department, in conjunction with the county’s Health Department, will be releasing a public service announcement about child safety. ” Baruch Dayen Emes to all the children.
I googeld “child safety devices for car seats” and found this website called “thingamababy” with the following article : “A Look at Three Child Car Heat Death Safety Devices”. I think it is important to post this article for “voz is neias” readers so they can put these devices on the car seats of our precious children and alert their friends to do the same. Just talking about this and blaming people will not save lives. Action needs to be taken.
i think one of the most important post posted on this blog is #16 . The poster explains how these terrible mistakes can happen. that is why it is called a “MISTAKE”. Things happen in life by a terrible forgetfullness by the persons actions. But we all make mistakes. In our small minded brains, we tend to RATE our mistakes by our own logical thinking. but just perhaps, some of the mistakes that any of us have made, in the bigger picture of life are just as dramatic and of the same level of consenquence, even though we dont see it at that moment. What needs to be learnt from this is that we must keep our wits around us at all times, WITH ALL MATTERS. not just with our children. Although r’l this poor child was niftar, many of us make snide remarks about others, do illegal business etc. BY MISTAKE, and that too kills a person. Lets be careful not to malign this child carer, because ultimately, it could be any of us having made this terrible MISTAKE.
Just talking to my daughter about this & she has a great suggestion. Anytime a baby/toddler is alone on the back seat, the driver should place a wallet/briefcase/purse next to the child. That way, once the driver tries to pay for something or needs to show ID, he/she will realize the kid is missing as well.
What a terrible tragedy!
“The quality of prior parental care seems to be irrelevant,” he said. “The important factors that keep showing up involve a combination of stress, emotion, lack of sleep and change in routine, where the basal ganglia is trying to do what it’s supposed to do, and the conscious mind is too weakened to resist. What happens is that the memory circuits in a vulnerable hippocampus literally get overwritten, like with a computer program. Unless the memory circuit is rebooted — such as if the child cries, or, you know, if the wife mentions the child in the back — it can entirely disappear.”
in a mini van the child is 3 seats behind .if the child is asleep or is quiet when u leave the car or you rely on your spouse or an older kid to close doors this could be a very common i strongly suggest always to leave the windows open an inch front and back during the summer regardless if u have chidren or not
first in a sealed car hot air is trapped inside and cries and screams cannot be heard . secondly every person should have a certain phobia like when leaving the subway oh maybe i left a bag and before departing give a second glance the same way when leaving a car always look back i may sound neurotic but everybody forgets something every single day and by the way from some comments on this site u can see there r lots of mean bitter people out there
BDE; what a horrible story! Unfortunately, I can see how this is all too easy to happen. I actually once came home from the country with my family of several children late at night, and left one of my kids sleeping in the backseat of my van. BH that child’s roommate noticed his absence around a
1/2 hour later and I was able to retrieve my child (still sleeping) without incident. NEVER condemn and NEVER assumer the r”l you can’t make the same mistake r”l.
Hashem Yishmur
how can a mother forget !!!!
I am an overprotective mother, never leave my children out sight for a second and I watch them in my own private completly closed backyard.
I once forgot my newborn in the car for over an hour. B”H it was in the winter and the baby slept thru it all. I was like you, quick to scream how irresponsible , careless and what not when this stories came out until it happen to me, and i can tell you one thing if it happened to me it can happen to anyone. i changed the way i look and judge people, till today I fear what could have happened that day many years ago. I had left some kids by my mom and took the baby with me, I was in a rush and went to the store, got what I needed and only realize I left the baby in the car when I was back in the car. again It was SO out of character for me.
talking about it with a friend she told me she left her 4 year old in the locked car for 3 hours but B”H it was parked under a tree and on a 70 degree weather that prevented it from getting too hot.
I am not saying it’s ok, or it happens what I am saying is: even if you trust yourself to the fullest and think it would never happen to you, think again. because there are times when the imposible happens. I feel terribly sorry for all those involved in any type of negligent accident that results in death or injury of a child.Hashem should have rachmones on all our children.
What was the childs name?
I want to start a group to learn Mishnayos in his memory.
May he find his place in Gan Eden. Amen!!!
It happened in the five towns, I remember this fellow walked out of his car and fell on the sidewalk, he had a heart attack, B”H before the ambulance took him away, a police officer looked in the car and saw a baby in the car seat!
Listen up fellows, this could happen to the best of us. and it actually happened to one of the best – to ME!
I took my then 2 year old daughter with me on a hot summer day car shopping. I was looking to buy a new car. The whole time that I was negotiating with the salesman, I felt that something wasn’t right, something is missing. I couldn’t figure out what that feeling was. I thought that maybe it was the weird salesman trying to convince me to buy that over sized overpriced car.
and then it hit me!
My wife sent me on “shlichus”… why was it so quiet in here? the whole way I was thinking how I would manage to look professional while running after my 2 year old.
I ran out to the car, and to my great luck and ezras hashem, I had hadn’t closed the door well, so air came in to the car. my sweetie pie was smiling at me when she saw me but I was in no mood to be able to smile back. My heart was pumping faster than a galicianer after a nickel.
B”H it ended well, but guys – be careful. Close Michael Savage or whoever you are listening to and focus on what you gotta be doing.
When I [did a big aveira and] went to college, I had a course on accident prevention.
Such courses focus not on the WHY? (ie why did this tragedy happen to so-and-so? What was Hashem’s plan? etc) but rather on the HOW–the mechanism of the accident, to help lower chances of a recurrence.
There is actually a scientific way to reduce accidents. There are methods that lower one’s chances of an accident. Some include simply mneumonics (memory aids) like those suggested above–ie leaving one’s purse or wallet next to the toddler, leaving the windows uncharacteristically open (helps remind the person, and also keep the child relatively cool if the electrical system fails or the child is forgotten), etc.
One thing that is not discussed, and won’t be by frum people, is that our wives, the mothers of our children, are overworked, overstressed, and exhausted. These sorts of variables factor into human error for pilots, for drivers, etc. Yet, somehow the women in our community are expected to be superwomen.
Such accidents resulting in loss of life are tragic, but by thinking of ways to lessen one’s chances of an accident, one is fulfilling a biblical mitzvah (ve’nishmartem me’od l’nafshoseichem) and the reward for obeying the dictum, chamira sakanta me’issura (a danger should be treated more stringently than a sin) will be enormous.
Baruch dayan emes.
It is always easier to judge. We all have something to say until it hits us. This is a tragic accident, it could have happend to anyone. We should not judge this woman but should pray for her. It was G-ds will to take that little boy, and she was an innoscent bystand. Lets pray for the family of the little boy, may time heal their pain.
What happened to all the passersby? If she was parked in front of the daycare center, didn’t anyone see the child in the car? For so many hours someone HAD to see something! Are we all too busy? Too busy to remember to look in the car to check if we left anything before we got out? A wallet, keys, glasses, cellphone, CHILD?!!!! Are we too busy that if we do see a child in a car, just to walk to the nearest house and ask did you forget a child in the car? We must change our ways/habits/lack of caring for others, or others personal property. I feel for both parties to this tragedy. Lo aleinu. And again I wouldn’t want this ever to happen to me and may it never happen to any of us, but in the end Baruch Dayan HaEmet.
I see that I have inadvertently given the wrong impression that my intent is to condemn the poor woman who left the child in the car.
Murder in English generally is taken as willful and malicious taking of the life of another person. I did not intend this meaning. The Torah calls it Retzicha whenever one person causes the death of another. This is not the same as murder. Perhaps this is what Millhouse meant by manslaughter. In no way am I saying that this woman had any harmful intent.
In general, my interest was not to seek ways to find the woman guilty.
However, I do believe that the excessive focus on not blaming her diverts from the very true problem of lack of concern and care for the steps necessary to insure that children are kept safe. I believe that more focus is needed there and that tragic incidents like these point out the need for extra safeguards to avoid such tragedies.
A VERY, VERY sad story…. Still, I don’t think it would be any good to sentence this poor woman. What good will it do to send 47 year old woman to jail? She’s gonna have to carry this burden for the rest of her life.