Parents, grandparents, guardians, and daycare staff are routinely advised to double-check before they lock the automobile. The growing number of infant deaths after being left in a vehicle while it was parked is worrisome.
A month before that, a 4-month-old baby girl died in a tragic accident. She was left strapped inside her daycare’s van for almost 5 hours!
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office posted a statement on their Facebook page announcing the arrest of Darryl Ewing, the co-owner and driver of the daycare’s van, for child neglect. The infant was left alone in the van, which was parked outside in the sun. It is believed that the baby suffered a “heat-related injury” due to temperatures that day reaching 92 degrees in Jacksonville.
Darryl Ewing of Florida Daycare, Love and Hope discovered the newborn girl asleep in her pram. She was wakened by a 56-year-old Darryl Ewing of Florida Daycare, Love and Hope at 8:25 AM. The children were collected by Ewing himself who drove the bus and dropped them off at the daycare centers’ facility. While he was unloading the kids, no other staff or persons were inside the van with him.
After that, he drove the van to a residential street in Laredo. He was not aware that he had left a one-month-old baby strapped into the third row of his vehicle while it was parked on the side of the road in Nuevo Laredo. The vehicle remained exposed to the heat of the sun until 2 p.m. On receiving her call at 1:03 p.m., her mother discovered that their baby girl was missing from her car seat inside the daycare’s van.
When they discovered that she had not been checked in by Ewing, they were furious.
They went to the van only to discover that the infant was still buckled in her seat, unresponsive. They contacted emergency services, but it was too late.
According to JSO’s announcement, the infant was confirmed dead on arrival. The following is a portion of the statement:
“Police and rescue personnel arrived and found the victim inside the daycare unresponsive. The victim was rushed to a local hospital where she was pronounced deceased.”
Ewing was discovered to have a separate log of all the youngsters he transported in his van after a preliminary inquiry.
According to the log, there is a record of the victim’s two siblings, but not the victim herself. The driver may have just copied the log that was kept at the time of checking in and pasted it onto his own log, which explains why he missed out on entering the name of the 4-year-old baby.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said, “This log is separate from the parental log signed by parents. Detectives viewed the driver’s log, which showed the suspect had logged in two of the victim’s siblings but not the victim.”
Other daycare center workers were also questioned by the authorities, who said that it was the van drivers’ duty to check and ensure that all kids are removed from the vehicle before leaving.
The police argue that Ewing was found to have neglected to provide the victim with adequate supervision and care to ensure that he or she was protected from bodily harm. Everything points toward Ewing’s negligence, including her conduct and lack of responsibility, that resulted in the 4-month-old infant’s death.