Toddler dies in hot car (7/18)
Posted July 18, 2009 at 12:25 am
Filed Under News | 12 Comments
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By DORIS MARICLE
AMERICAN PRESS
JENNINGS — A woman whose 2-year-old son died after being left in a locked car for hours has been charged with negligent homicide, authorities said.
Hollie Ann Simon, 25, of Jennings, was reportedly arrested Thursday after the toddler was found unresponsive inside the car.
“This is a tragedy for the mother because she has lost a son, but it is also a tragedy for the whole community,” Detective Jean Cooley said. “We hear about this happening in big cities … it’s always somewhere else, but this time it’s hit home.”
Cooley said police and emergency responders were called to the home at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday after the mother and a relative pulled the unresponsive toddler out of the car.
The boy was taken to Jennings American Legion Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“Apparently the mother had laid down after she’d gotten home from work around 6:30 a.m.,” Cooley said. “The children were all asleep when she got in, but at some point they got up and went outside to play.”
At some point, he said, the 2-year-old and a 3-year-old sibling got into the mother’s unlocked car, which was parked on the side of the family’s home in the 4000 block of Wilbert Rochelle Drive. The 3-year-old later got out and inadvertently locked the doors with the younger sibling inside, Cooley said.
“The other children heard him crying and tried to get him to unlock the doors,” he said.
The children went inside twice, but were unable to wake the mother up, Cooley said.
The children, ages 7, 5 and 3, told investigators the toddler later quit crying and “went to sleep,” he said.
A family member stopped by to check on them, and the children told the person about the toddler inside the car, Cooley said. The relative woke the mother, and they got the child out of the car and called 911, he said.
Authorities do not know how hot the car may have gotten inside or how long the child was inside, Cooley said.
“We know it was super hot yesterday, but by the time we got there the car had been ventilated because the doors were left open,” he said.
Temperatures on Thursday afternoon reached 91 degrees with a heat index of 102 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.
The toddler’s body was sent to the Calcasieu Coroner’s Office for an autopsy.
The other children are reportedly staying with a relative and are being monitored by the state Office of Community Services.
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this is a sad situation and i hope she dont go to jail. i have worked the late shift and got off at 6:30 and had to try and care for my kids and get rest and i hope everyone see this was a horrible accident and the ages of the kids play abig part in the case. put all the legal junk aside look at her case and really see a mother(apparantely single) trying to live and just was tired from work without the knowledge of her kids being outside.
Test her for drugs. If the kids tried to wake her up twice and she did not get up, then she is on something.
Both responses was good and yes it is a sad situation. But less test her for drugs and see. Before putting her in jail and the other kids without a mother.
kids are going to be kids i don’t think the mother should go to jail, she’s suffered enough by loosing a child. Think of how the other kids would have to live the rest of their lives with this tragedy on their minds loosing a sibling and their mother is in jail beacuse they were out playing please have sympthy for this lady working and that late shift to care for her kids. My prayers and sympthy to the family that all ends well
There is no excuse for this–none! You should send them to a babysitter or something–knowing you have to sleep after getting off when it is time for the children to be getting up. NO EXCUES!!!!!
Why were these young children left unattended while there mother slept in the first place? There is no excuse in these set of circumstances for this to happen. The mother’s neglect resulted in the loss ot this childs life!!
I think every parent should take this very seriuos this about the 4th or 5th child iv’e seen die because of heat in a car and it is not called for.parents of little ones ought to know that they are going to do or go see if they can get into anything especially cars.with this weather like it is cars need to be locked keys out of reach of the kids I feel that this case should have never happend.Children need 24 hour care no matter how old they are and needs to be pointed out all the time.if parents cannot take care there is a program to give them foster homes and put them up adoption please use it.we have good families who are the ones who will take care of them.
Yes it is a horrible situation, but it is a parents responsibility to arrange for child care if she is not capable for what ever resdson to properly surpervise her children. Yes jail is the place for her to go if indeed she is found guilty.
Until you work as a CNA at Golden Age of Welsh on the 10-6am. keep your negative comments to yourself. It’s very hard taking care of old sick people. Why dont’t you try it. Then get home and try and stay awake.It’s hard being a single mother.I can comment on this because I’ve worked the same shift with her and I’am a single mother and it’s HARD. Instead of you saying drug test her. Why don’t you come watch her kids so she can get some sleep. So she can work to take care of her kids. If she was on welfare you would have something to say about that to.
i work shiftwork and that includes long nights leading to 6am. i dont have any kids but if i did (4 of them for that matter!) id make sure a proper sitter or guardian was around so that i could sleep ‘like a rock’ like this woman.
‘negligent’ homicide is an understatement! lock the house up, lock your car and hide the keys from the kids. and really … who doesnt lock their vehicles anymore?!?!
i dont pitty fools like Mr. T!
This is truly a tragity, some mothers try to raise their kids & work & still get thrown under a Bus.
Where are the Fathers of these kids? this has got to stop, kids need both parents working together to prevent things like this from happening & also loving them & training them so that society can move in a positive direction Pray for this Young Mother & all young mothers who have tough choices & lives to Live also Pray for the men in our communities that they wake up & get involved with their kids & not just settle for paying child support $$$ but really Support their kids
This is why I have only ONE child. I was married, but eventually became a divorced mother. I met guys who told me I needed more children. My response was to tell them to get away from me. When I worked, I left my child with the same people who raised me and my brothers. I didn’t date men who didn’t have full-time jobs and eventually met a wonderful man. I have been a full-time stay at home mom ever since. All I can say is stop having so many children, get an education and stay away from baby making losers who don’t pay child support. My daughter gets $500 a month in support from her father.