Texas toddlers die 'after left intentionally in car for 15 hours'

[inanna]

Source: BBC

1 hour ago

Two young sisters have died in Texas after their mother allegedly left them in a car for 15 hours in temperatures of up to 32C (90F).

Amanda Hawkins, 19, left the girls, aged one and two, in the car at 21:00 on Tuesday (03:00 GMT Wednesday) to visit friends nearby, police said.

Her daughters cried during the night but she ignored them, a sheriff said, and returned only at noon the next day.

Ms Hawkins has been charged with two counts of child endangerment.

Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer said it was the worst such case he had seen in 37 years on the force.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40234401

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She ignored them?

She fucking IGNORED them?!

I can't even....

[christx30]

1. Child endangerment? I think it's gone beyond endangerment.

I hold my daughter by the ankles over a crocodile, but then I pull her to safety, that's endangerment. I ignore my kids in a car in 102 degree temps (Austin 2 days ago) for 15 hours, that's straight up neglect, and manslaughter.
The oldest girl is two. So the mom must have know they'd need a bathroom at one point. Maybe drugs were involved with this visit?

[JenniferJuniper]

2. The word is murder, if it was intentional.

[inanna]

3. Totally agree with you.

[christx30]

15. It doesn't seem intentional to me.

But it was hella neglectful. I think they'd have a problem proving intent, which would be necessary for a murder conviction.
It was less "I hate these kids, and I want them out of my life" and more "those kids are making it hard to get my drink on".
But it's still way more than endangerment.

[LisaL]

28. "Intentionally" in the title applies to her leaving children in the car.

From what is being reported, she knew they were in the car, she left them in the car intentionally.

[HockeyMom]

4. Horrible

We worried about our cats in carriers with windows left open when we stopped for an hour to eat moving up from Florida to Pa.

Children? Living in Florida we knew all about how HOT cars get in temps over 90 degrees left while at work. Never, never leave any living thing (children or animals) in those cars for hours.

[inanna]

6. Exactly!

I panicked when I was moving to my new apartment last year in August because I didn't have an air conditioner. I'd been in a place with central air just prior. I was very concerned and stressed out at the thought of leaving my two dogs on hot days while I was at work. I feel that's no different than the hot car thing. I mentioned it to my boss - he saved the day by gifting me an older window unit he was no longer using from his cottage.

He made sure I had it by the time I moved into the new place.

My dogs do not tolerate heat very well in a house - let alone in a car.

How could this "mother" not know the risks involved here? Everybody knows this stuff by now.

[JDC]

5. Drugs must be involved. What about her friend?

Surely more than just the "mother" knew those kids were in the car.

[Shrike47]

8. Her friend was a 16 year old male. Her husband was 'not involved.'

This woman lives a life difficult to imagine.

[snooper2]

37. Yeah I'm sure it's just horrible...not enough time for more selfies

Not enough time to make her millennial hair green



Not enough time to put cute little nose pics



Not enough time to get the makeup just right

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. Other coverage indicates that people inside the house may have encouraged her to bring

the babies in and she said no.

[Horse with no Name]

18. one of them should have called the police. Those who knew these kids were in the car are accomplices

to their murder.

[Nay]

30. Agreed. Break the window, get the kids out, call the cops.

[forgotmylogin]

16. 3 am to noon.

She's guilty and should be put away, but I don't wonder sometimes if it doesn't dawn on Millennials (especially who haven't owned pets) that the air quality and temperature in a closed car is very different from that of a running car. Has she never tried to sit in her own car with it turned off?

Horrifyingly, I suspect she might have believed that if the car was A/C cool when she got out, that it would stay that cool overnight without the sun blaring down. Then she woke up late after partying.

Yes, she's a monster.

I wonder sometimes if automakers shouldn't put a badge on the dashboard or steering wheel that reminds people "An enclosed, parked car can be hazardous and possibly fatal to children and pets due to quickly rising temperature and limited air supply. Please do not leave them unsupervised." Or even an audio warning after the car is turned off "Do not leave pets or children unsupervised in the car."

I know that's nanny state, but I've heard so often where clueles people exclaim (usually in the case of someone breaking a window to rescue a pet) "Oh I had no idea how hot it got in the car! I was only gone ten minutes!"

[inanna]

17. I ABSOLUTELY think that is a brilliant idea!

[forgotmylogin]

20. As a side note, one of my responsible neighbors

often brings her Pug along on a car ride. She has signs made up to put on the window:

"Hi, my name is Butter. If the car is running, that means I am enjoying air conditioning and Led Zeppelin on the radio, and my owner has provided me with water while she is temporarily inside. Please do not break the window except in case of emergency!"

[LisaL]

29. Your car is not your babysitter.

[sarge43]

31. 2100hrs is 9pm.

Those poor children locked in that car for fifteen hours. They were tortured. They were hungry, dehydrated, soiled themselves, then died of heat stroke.

Child endangerment?! Minimum, that was manslaughter

[TexasBushwhacker]

35. A car is a greenhouse

Even with the windows cracked, the temperature rises the most in the first 10 minutes - 2 degrees F per minute. So even if the car was 80° at the beginning, it's 100° in only 10 minutes.

Here's a graph. Maybe we could get manufacturers to include the stickers with the sale of car seats. Have them available at the DMV.

[forgotmylogin]

36. I like the idea of including them with car seats.

Especially if it was a mountable badge or sticker that could go on the dashboard to remind all drivers and included text to the effect of "This is why you should not leave children or pets unsupervised in a parked car".

Maybe they could stylize it as a small version of the "Baby On Board" suction cup signs, except for the driver instead of the back window.

I'm not saying that forgetting or not knowing is any kind of excuse in a case like this, but it's good to make new parents aware of danger they may not have conceived of, especially if they are used to pre-child impulse "let me just duck in here for a gallon of milk real quick" detours and get stuck in line without realizing ten minutes in a hot car can be excruciating for a child or an animal.

[DFW]

7. Leaving them in a car in those conditions for fifteen minutes is endangerment

Leaving them in a car in those conditions for 15 hours is murder.

[kimbutgar]

9. This also is a consequence of Texas doing away with family planning clinics

Cutting off funding for young women to get birth control. This girl did not want those children and in her naive brain thought this is how she can be free. Now she will be in jail most of her life.

What she did was heinous but she could have avoided being pregnant so young if she had access to birth control or abortion services. I heard Texas now has third world nation maternal death rates.

[RhodeIslandOne]

21. Who says she didn't want them at one time?

She clearly didn't want them anymore.

In today's disposable society, kids are now treated like last year's iPhone. Cool at one time, now if you lose it or break it, whatevs.

I don't disagree that Texas cuts funding left and right on all sorts of important social programs including birth control and prenatal health, but there are a lot of flat out dumb people who think getting married and pregnant is something you just gotta do ASAP to look fabulous, in addition to fixing whatever relationship problems they have. Schools are going to have to start teaching kids what healthy relationships are about and that kids are a lifelong responsibility, not an accouterment.

[benld74]

10. Prayers

[inanna]

12. Something similar happened in Canada at the hands of a daycare provider:

From The Toronto Star

The death of Eva Ravikovich, the child who changed provincial daycare laws

The agreed statement of facts, released years after Eva’s death in 2013, tells the shocking events that took place the day the 2-year-old died, left in a hot car by the owner of an overcrowded, unlicensed Vaughan daycare.

...

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/04/22/the-death-of-eva-ravikovich-the-child-who-changed-provincial-daycare-laws.html

This report was very, very difficult for me to process when I read it.

[cry baby]

13. Looked at her Facebook page. Lots of pics of her beautiful girls.

WTF was she thinking?

[keithbvadu2]

14. There can be no excuses

[Horse with no Name]

19. and she is a trump supporter...go figure

she has horrible things on her FB about Hillary.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

22. Link?

The one I found has exactly one political post, and it's not about HRC.

[Horse with no Name]

23. Sure

https://www.facebook.com/amandaisaac.hawkins

Start about October 16, 2016

[WhiskeyGrinder]

24. Ah! She's got multiple accounts.

Thx.

[RandiFan1290]

33. I was wondering why her mugshot wasn't plastered all over.

Not it is obvious.

[NCDem777]

25. Makes ya wonder

how many of these "accidental" hot car deaths are "accidents"

[luvMIdog]

26. she baked her children to death the same as if she put them in the oven. She should get life

[FiveGoodMen]

27. Got to agree

Many kinds of murder would have been less horrible than the one she chose.

Just unthinkable.

[UCmeNdc]

32. This is the only punishment?

Hawkins was arrested and charged with abandoning or endangering a child for each of her kids.

These charges could be upgraded but at the moment she faces a maximum of two years if convicted.

She will have to post a $70,000 (£54,000) bond before she is released from jail.

[get the red out]

34. I wish

giving kids up for adoption didn't tend to upset extended family members. A child's life isn't worth it. Some people her age are mature and stable enough for adult responsibilities, like a girl in my graduating class who got pregnant then married during our senior year and is still happily married to her HS boyfriend, posting pics of her grandkids on FB. She came from a very loving home though and was psychologically sound as a result, I assume her husband is the same (I didn't know him as well as I did her). Who knows about the young woman in this case, but this horror may be the result of generations of family dysfunction.

We need more, not less, social services.

That being said, there is no excuse for what she did, she is plenty old enough to know better. I have known drug addicts who would have never done something like this, no excuse.