Prosecutors charge woman with car seat death
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- A mother has been charged with vehicular homicide after Spokane police said she improperly installed the car seat in which her infant daughter was critically injured.Jensen is currently expecting her second child since Chloe Avah Jenses was killed in March 2006. Jensen has two other children who were born before Chloe Avah.
Jensen, 24, of Post Falls, Idaho, crashed into a stopped vehicle in Spokane. Her daughter was in the front seat in a rear-facing car seat.
The passenger-side airbag deployed during the crash, causing extensive head trauma to Chloe, police said. The child died 10 months later.
Spokane County prosecutors say this could be the first such case in Washington, which requires all children under 13 to sit in a rear seat when practical.
*****Would someone please explain to me why they are wasting tax payer money to prosecute this women (admittedly, dumb as a stump)?? She could have had her daughter aborted at full-term with no repercussions. Some of the comments left at KREM 2 news are vile saying why this woman needs to be punished. Something tells me these same people would think a woman's decision to have an abortion was not a criminal act.
8 comments:
when we got our new car we were told that any child under 10 would most likely be killed if they were in the front seat and the air bag went off.
If this women was told this, I personally think, she should be prosecuted. Putting such a young child in the front seat is stupid.
I also don't think it should be an either or. Mothers need to take the time to care fully for their children from conception onwards. Any neglect needs to be reported and dealt with in an appropriate way.
anytime a person kills another person it is murder. Sometimes there are mitigating factors...but each and every person who has killed another should be judged. her stupidity and inadherence to following the big warning sticker on the visor/handbook/carseat base/carseat/carseat instruction manual...and a few other places I've forgotten. make the child's death a crime. Every bit as much a crime as the mother/father/daycareworkder who leaves a child in a car on a summer's day and the child dies.
We must stand up for those who cannot stand for themselves. If we say that abortion should be illegal...we also need to say that what this mother did which resulted in her child's death should be illegal. And therefore she should be prosecuted.
Under Washington law it is illegal to have a child like that ride in a carseat in the front seat of the car. Allegedly, the child died as a result of the violation of this law. In such a case, the prosecutor has an obligation to prosecute the case under the law. I feel badly for the mother, but there is sufficient evidence that she committed a crime that was the promixate cause of the death of her daughter. That merits prosecution.
Sorry, I don't agree with any of you. Get real. Mothers, you know how difficult it is to have a baby seated facing the rear behind you where you can't see them! THINK!
If anyone under 10 is likely to be killed by an airbag going off, then the airbags are too dangerous.
This also means that my 4'10", 85 pound mother will likely to be killed. Is my mother supposed to drive from the back seat or sit in a car seat? OR, worse not be able to drive?
It also meant that my grandmother would have been killed. How in the H**L would I have gotten my 98 year old grandmother into the back seat?
For that matter, I'm only 5 feet tall will I get killed too?
the airbags don't kill because of height, they kill because of weight. A child doesn't have the weight to take the impact of the airbag.
If the airbags are dangerous, is a whole different matter. It is irrelevant in this situation. This mother has been negligent and that is what she is being prosecuted for. No car seat is suppose to go in the front seat here. She was negligent by placing her child in the front seat when the law is no child under 13 (according to the article).
I have 7 children and I have never had a difficulty placing my child in an appropriate car seat in the back and cannot think of any reason a child in a backward car seat would need to be in the front with a mother driving. I follow the laws. Laws are there to protect us and keep us safe.
The main thing is this, most newby parents struggle to figure it all out. Including properly installing the car seats. No joke.
My dh, is a chiropractor, he offers to check the car seat installations of his new parent parents. Most of the time car seats are improperly installed. So, it wouldn't matter if the child was in the front or back if the car seat goes flying in a crash. Oh, and driving around or in parkinglots, I've seen too many infant seats in the front seat.
Because it's probably easier.
We had aquaintaces who lived in our apartment building when we were newby parents. They had a son the same age as our darling. We would see the parents drive up and park or drive off with the infant in the front seat. It was easier to feed him a bottle. I suppose they never thought they'd be in a car accident. Lazlo even went out on a limb to tell them the risks. All he got was shrugged shoulders.
I don't think this woman should be prosecuted beyond involuntary manslaughter. Probation max. Including a class on properly installing a car seat for her next child.
But, I'd remove airbags or turn them off if possible if someone lightweight or too short was in the front seat. Which brings me into how many little kids, too short and too light, I see driving around after school pick up in the front seat. Parents oblivious.
But, your point on abortion, is well taken. Unfortuantly, people in this country hold the 'privacy' and 'constitutional' right to an abortion above all else. Probably even above 'Free Speach' and 'Right to bear Arms'. We live in a sick society.
This is a mother of other children. Yes, this mother made a terrible, stupid mistake. And, she has paid the worst possible price for it - causing the death of her own child. I don't know for sure, but I truly doubt this mother deliberately set out to do this.
We mothers (and fathers) have all made mistakes (you would be lying if you say you haven't) and only by the grace of God have our children lived through them.
Aussie - As to taking time to "care fully" for a child, most of us do our very best. We are only human. We get distracted. We have only two eyes, two hands. We have to blink, go to the bathroom, care for other family members, and we have to sleep. It takes only a second for something to happen.
It is easy to condemn and judge. Where is your Christian compassion?
Packrat,
All the things you say I agree with. I am certain that this mother didn't set out to kill her child. That said though, she did break the law. A person driving a car on the road has a responsibility to know the laws and keep them.
I have plenty of Christian compassion for this women and certainly hope and pray I am never in her position. That said, if I broke any laws or was negligent in any way, I expect there to be consequences. Part of being a Christian is desiring justice a part that many people seem to forget.
No where have I condemned or judged this women. I believe she neglected her child's needs, placing her in the front seat when there is a risk. I have judged her action, not her.
As MM pointed out, stickers with warnings and instruction manuals have warnings against using car seats in the front seat. This is not a matter of human nature and getting distracted. It is a matter of following rules and instructions.
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people that think rules can be broken.
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