Tot dies after her neck becomes stuck in car's power window

[JayS]

June 8, 2004, 6:28AM
Tot dies after her neck becomes stuck in car's power window
Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2616015



DALLAS -- A 3-year-old Farmers Branch girl has died after her neck became caught in the power-operated window of a car, authorities said.

Yencey Ayala's mother had gotten out of the car Sunday to speak to the child's father and left the car running. The child somehow rolled up the window on her neck.

*SNIP*

[CO Liberal]

1. How Sad

That's why many cars moved the power window switches off the doors and onto the center console. It's very easy for a small child to stand on the armrest and operate the switch with their foot.

Maybe they could put a safety shutoff on the power windows, like they have on garage door openers. If the window hits an obstruction while closing, it would reverse direction.

[LibLabUK]

2. Yup

"Maybe they could put a safety shutoff on the power windows, like they have on garage door openers. If the window hits an obstruction while closing, it would reverse direction."

Renault, Peugeot, Mercedes, Audi and Citroen fit those type of cutoffs in their cars.

[mosin]

9. VW as well

Our 2002 Volkswagen Passat has obstruction sensors as well. There is also a rear window cut-off switch on the driver's door. We keep it set so that the kids -- who are in car seats anyway -- can't play with the windows.

[JayS]

3. My vehicle has a switch that cuts the power to the controls...

...in the back seat area...but if you leave a child in the front seat with the car running it won't do much good.

[CO Liberal]

4. I've Only Owned One Car With Power Windows

It was a '74 Buick Century wagon. The power window switches were on the door panels, so they were vertical. And my kids were 8 and 6 when I owned that car, so there was less of a hazard.

[Randall]

5. the parent is to blame

Or maybe parents can start being more responsible and not leave 3 year olds in running cars.

While this is unfortunate, it even worse that people want to blame the car or the kid, the blame should be placed on the parents. Most likely the parents will sue and make a lot of money off this.

[TexasMexican]

8. Definately the parents fault.

My car has power windows, and it has it has the controls on the doors.

I prefer the controls there, I just lock the back seat controls down so that only I have control, and I dont leave any kids alone in my vehicle when its running.

Power windows only work if the keys are in the ignintion.

Its not smart to leave the car alone with the keys in the ignition, as it might get stolen. So why would you leave the car with the keys in the ignition and only a child in the car?

[iverglas]

10. point that finger

the parent is to blame
Or maybe parents can start being more responsible and not leave 3 year olds in running cars.

Maybe if you point enough of those fingers, and perhaps add in a few beheadings, it will bring the dead 3-year-old back to life.

Very certainly it will prevent any 3-year-old from ever being caught in a car window again, eh? Because blaming the parents (and beheading a few) will beyond a doubt result in no parent doing anything negligent or careless around his/her kids ever again. Have I got this right?

While this is unfortunate, it even worse that people want to blame the car or the kid, the blame should be placed on the parents.

Who in the bleeding hell "blames" inanimate objects for anything??

As far as "blaming" the kid ... it's certainly true, in fact, that parents simply cannot prevent any harm from coming to their kids, ever, as a result of things the kids do that they shouldn't have done. What if the parent in this tale had dashed away from the car to come to the aid of a senior citizen being mugged on the sidewalk? (The car was on because it was winter and the motor had to warm up, and she hadn't finished buckling the child into the restraint in which the child was to be properly secured in the back seat.) Who would be to blame then? (Yeah, I know. The mugger. Let's make the mugger bring the kid back to life.)

I'm just everlastingly glad that I don't suffer from whatever lousy childhood experience it must be that prompts some people to take such joy in the idea of punishing someone for a tragedy while agreeing to no measures that would probably prevent such tragedies from occurring in future. I say let's do what we can to improve childrearing and provide supports for those engaged in it, so that they don't produce resentful, hostile children who grow up to be adults who go around blaming other people for the misfortunes those people suffer.

Hell, obviously this parent wasn't a saved xian, or god would not have punished her this way ...

[TexasMexican]

11. So iverglas...

do you think its a good idea to leave a 3 year old child alone in a running car?

[iverglas]

14. why don't you answer MY question?

What if the parent in this tale had dashed away from the car to come to the aid of a senior citizen being mugged on the sidewalk? (The car was on because it was winter and the motor had to warm up, and she hadn't finished buckling the child into the restraint in which the child was to be properly secured in the back seat.) Who would be to blame then?

do you think its a good idea to leave a 3 year old child alone in a running car?

I have to admit. I left a 3-year-old alone in a running car about a year ago.

The 3-year-old was my niece. I was about to take her on an errand, to fetch clean clothes for my 72-yr-old mother, who was inside my sister's house waiting by my father's bedside for him to die and had not left his side for three days -- the three of them alone in the house after my brother had taken the other niece on another errand. As I closed the back door of my sister's car, after securing the child, my sister came to the front door of the house and said "you'd better come back". I ran in to find my father roused out of unconsciousness, obviously in pain and terror, my mother distraught and trying to comfort him, and the three of us pretty much knowing that this was it. For the next several minutes of that pain and terror, my mother tried to comfort my father, I and my sister tried to comfort her, and all three of us pretty much had our hands full. Only when it was over, and my father was dead, did I say "shit, I left I___ in the car".

The car was a brand new Honda Odyssey with all the safety bells and whistles, and the child was a mature 3-year-old capable of exercising self-restraint and amusing herself safely. In this we were arguably lucky, and what we did was still arguably "irresponsible". Someone with a more unruly child who hadn't had a super-duper company car bestowed on them might have been less lucky, and perhaps less "responsible" in leaving a 3-year-old in an inferior vehicle.

We require that space heaters have switches to shut them off if they are accidentally tipped over by drunks, to prevent children from being burned alive in house fires caused by their parents' irresponsibility. We require landlords to install smoke alarms in rental units, to prevent children from dying of smoke inhalation from fires caused by their parents' irresponsibility. We require property owners not to create "attractive nuisances" on their property so that children whose parents are so irresponsible as to let them go out to play, relying on them not to trespass where they have been told not to, will not be poisoned or drown or fall to their deaths.

What in the name of anything you can think of can be argued AGAINST requiring manufacturers of things that can harm a child who can be expected to be in contact with the things, and who behaves in the way children are known to behave, make them as safe for children as reasonably possible???

I can't say whether it's a good idea in any particular circumstance to leave a child in a running car. I can't say that there are never circumstances when it might be necessary, or unavoidable, or the lesser of two evils, to do that. I also can't guarantee that some stupid or evil person will never do it for no good reason at all. So I can't imagine why it should not be made as safe as possible to do it, for those instances in which either someone is so stupid or evil, or the circumstances are so exigent, that it happens and the child suffers.

[TexasMexican]

15. The Parent would still be to blame.

You do what you have to ensure the safety of your family first before you help others. You buckle your child in or your turn off the car before you go out and help that lady.

[iverglas]

16. uh huh

You do what you have to ensure the safety of your family first before you help others. You buckle your child in or your turn off the car before you go out and help that lady.

Now apply your wisdom to the situation of my own that I described, if you will.

I won't raise anything else this time, lest we fall even farther behind here.

[TexasMexican]

19. not going to judge you but...

if it were me I would hope that I would remember to get the kid out of the car.

Its not good to leave kids alone, and as cold as I'm going to make this sound, why would you want to risk the life of a little child for the life of a man on his deathbed.

[NorthernSpy]

20. not going to judge you either, not that I'm not tempted

It's just that I like it here, and don't want to get tombstoned.


Your post: not going to judge you but...

if it were me I would hope that I would remember to get the kid out of the car.

Its not good to leave kids alone, and as cold as I'm going to make this sound, why would you want to risk the life of a little child for the life of a man on his deathbed.


Oh, for god's sake. Whose life is Iverglas supposed to have "risked"? Barring a freak accident, the kid was likely about as safe in the well-functioning car as she would have been alone in her bedroom at home.

The thing about freak accidents is that they can occur just about anywhere, at just about any time, although they are by definition extremely rare occurrences. Shall we arrest parents who let their kids watch television during a thunderstorm? After all, any plugged-in electrical appliance can pose a hazard if lightning grounds through the house wiring.

All we generally require of people is that they take reasonable precautions to prevent serious mishaps that are both reasonably foreseeable and reasonably preventable. We might expect people not to let their children go swimming while lightning is striking all around; however, we don't require parents to unplug every lamp, toaster, and tv set, and we don't call them negligent if they don't, because the possibility of harm coming to their children from this kind of nonaction is decidely remote. By the same token, we consider negligent those parents who lock their children in an airless car on a warm day, or who leave their kids in a vehicle with its engine running while it's still shut up in the garage. That's because the potential for deadly heat buildup and/or carbon monoxide poisoning are obvious and significant in these examples. In contrast, leaving a child in a car under circumstances that don't present any known dangers is not necessarily negligent behavior.

So, tell us: exactly what reasonably foreseeable danger do you accuse Iverglas of subjecting her niece to on the day her father died?

And if you can't come up with anything convincing, maybe you'd like to take back that snotty little bit about Iver "risking" the life of a child to wrongly devote her attention to that "man on his deathbed", whose last few minutes of life you seem to think quite undeserving of all the fuss.


Mary

[TexasMexican]

21. "Shall we arrest parents who..."

I dont believe I ever claimed that the parents of these type of "accidents," should be arrested or serve any type of jail time.

IMO the loss of a child should be punishment enough, and hopefully a lesson is learned out of that tradgedy. That is not to say they should get off scott free if they are routinely that negligent.

"Oh, for god's sake. Whose life is Iverglas supposed to have "risked"? Barring a freak accident, the kid was likely about as safe in the well-functioning car as she would have been alone in her bedroom at home."

Accidents in cars are common, and bedrooms rarely move around and crash into buildings, tress, or run over people.

"In contrast, leaving a child in a car under circumstances that don't present any known dangers is not necessarily negligent behavior."

So you are saying that you dont know of any dangers that can happen to a child left in a running car? Didnt the article in this thread just present one danger to you? Here is another danger, people like to steal unatended cars with the key in the ignition. How about this, little kids sometimes take cars for a little drive because they dont know better.

[NorthernSpy]

22. let's try this again

""Shall we arrest parents who...""


I dont believe I ever claimed that the parents of these type of "accidents," should be arrested or serve any type of jail time.

Alrighty then: Shall we arrest bitch at parents who take merely reasonable precautions against avoidable dangers, rather than spend every waking moment trying to indentify and neutralize all theoretical risks, no matter how remote and unlikely they may be?

Better?



Accidents in cars are common, and bedrooms rarely move around and crash into buildings, tress, or run over people.


Come on! Accidents in the home are hardly uncommon. Kids climb on furniture and it tips and hurts them. Kids trip while jumping on their mattresses and fall and hit their heads. Kids chew on their toys and choke on bits that break off. Kids try to climb out their bedroom windows. There are plenty of ways children come to grief at home, and in keeping with the bedroom example, I'm not even counting stoves, stairs, bathtubs, drain cleaner, or any of those other hazards that they may encounter throughout the rest of the house. We expect people to take reasonable measures to preserve their children's wellbeing at home, but we also recognize that houses cannot be made zero-risk zones any more than cars can.


So you are saying that you dont know of any dangers that can happen to a child left in a running car?


Did you actually read what I wrote? In fact, I pointed out two examples of situations in which leaving a child in a car would put the child in obvious jeopardy. My point was that not all instances in which a child is left alone in a car involve any substantial risk to the child. Sometimes -- as in Iverglas' case, and in her hypothetical example of coming to the aid of another person outside the car -- an individual confronts a situation in which there is no clearly superior alternative course of action. We have a term for those kinds of dilemmas: life. Negligence doesn't really enter into it.

You haven't come up with anything that justifies accusing Iverglas of risking her niece's life. The power window scenario; the kid trying to drive off: perhaps you didn't notice the part where Iverglas said that the child was fastened in.

As for the prospect of abduction, you simply don't know whether the car was locked or not (lots of people keep two sets of keys, for instance). In any case, it's worth pointing out that actual odds of Canadian child being kidnapped from a car in her family's dooryard are vanishingly small. See the studies at http://www.ourmissingchildren.ca


Mary

[TexasMexican]

24. Yes.

"Shall we bitch at parents who take merely reasonable precautions against avoidable dangers, rather than spend every waking moment trying to indentify and neutralize all theoretical risks, no matter how remote and unlikely they may be?"

I will bitch at people who I think did something boneheaded and yes leaving a car running unattended is a boneheaded thing to do.

I have never left my car running with no one competent enough to use it in it. I cant say that I have ever witnessed my family doing the same either, so maybe I got it from them.

I hardly consider turning off the car and taking the keys with you "spending every waking moment trying to indentify and neutralize all theoretical risks, no matter how remote and unlikely they may be," its just common sense.

"Accidents in the home are hardly uncommon."

Yes but they usually arent fatal, while accidents in cars tend to be fatal.

"We expect people to take reasonable measures to preserve their children's wellbeing at home, but we also recognize that houses cannot be made zero-risk zones any more than cars can."

All it takes to reduce the risk of something bad happening in the car is to reach over turn it off and take the keys. What does that take, like 10 seconds?

[iverglas]

25. and I still gotta ask

I will bitch at people who I think did something boneheaded and yes leaving a car running unattended is a boneheaded thing to do.

And you will have accomplished ... what is it again, exactly?

Saved the life of another kid whose boneheaded parent left him/her in a running car?

Or made yourself feel all superior and righteous?

Me, I still care about kids at risk, whether as a result of parental boneheadedness or corporate corruption. And I really don't give a shit about the state of your ego. The kid is still the subject of concern, and the kid should no more have to rely exclusively on the competence or good will of his/her parents to protect him/her from life-threatening dangers, that are easily avoided by universal preventive measures, than you should. You can perhaps look out for yourself; kids can't.

And I'd still be ashamed if I preferred pointing fingers at parents, whether they be momentarily careless, caught in a no-win situation or flat-out evil, to making kid's lives safer.

[TexasMexican]

26. "Or made yourself feel all superior and righteous?"

pretty much.

"The kid is still the subject of concern, and the kid should no more have to rely exclusively on the competence or good will of his/her parents to protect him/her from life-threatening dangers, that are easily avoided by universal preventive measures, than you should"

Seems to me that turning off the car and removing the keys are a pretty good universal preventative measure to stop all kinds of bad things from possibly happening. Also saves gas and and the environment by not wasting fuel on a vehicle that isnt going anywhere.

"And I'd still be ashamed if I preferred pointing fingers at parents..."

Maybe you but not me. Peer pressure is still a good motivator for change.

[TX-RAT]

27. You are aware that its illegal to leave a child unattended in TX

Due to all the heat related deaths of small children in our state. If you drive up to a 7-11 and walk in and leave your child in the vehicle you have committed a misdemeanor.

[TexasMexican]

29. nope but it doesnt suprise me...

I wasnt aware that there was a law specifically dealing with that but it doesnt suprise me.

Leaving children alone in cars is bad.

[iverglas]

28. sometimes ya gotta just laugh

The kid is still the subject of concern, and the kid should no more have to rely exclusively on the competence or good will of his/her parents to protect him/her from life-threatening dangers, that are easily avoided by universal preventive measures, than you should.

Seems to me that turning off the car and removing the keys are a pretty good universal preventative measure to stop all kinds of bad things from possibly happening. Also saves gas and and the environment by not wasting fuel on a vehicle that isnt going anywhere.

... even if ya do still wonder whether this sort of thing requires a lot of work (and why anyone would spend time and energy on it ... although one pretty much knows the answer) -- or just comes natural like.

I haven't found a cute picture for "I'll just keep ignoring what you said and pretending that what I say is a meaningful response to it when in point of fact it is just noise", so I'll sign off with the advice to myself to remember that there is a point at which



is just boring.

Yup, turning off the car etc. etc. etc. is an excellent preventive. And if Grown-up "X" DOESN'T DO IT, Child "Y" MAY DIE. I remain completely damned if I can figure out why anyone would prefer to see Child "Y" die than to see safety features required that would make it unnecessary for Grown-up "X" to take the preventive measure that s/he may be too ignorant or negligent or exigent-circumstanced to take.

Blaming people for their own misfortunes, and refusing to lift a finger to help them, should be heart-warming enough for the self-righteous crowd, I'd 'a thought. It takes a very special kind of person to blame people for the misfortune of innocent third parties who are completely unable to protect themselves, and refuse to lift a finger to protect them.

[TexasMexican]

30. adios

Hopefully you will atleast remember not to leave any children alone in a running car in the future.

[iverglas]

31. I could leave a zillion children alone in running cars

And I'd still be a better person than some I could mention, Gunga Din.

Now I'd suggest that you go find somewhere more productive to point your finger. You ain't my peer, so there's no peer pressure gonna happen here.

[TexasMexican]

33. of couse.

"You ain't my peer, so there's no peer pressure gonna happen here."

ofcourse, I'm not Canadian.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[iverglas]

37. and of course

Did you know she's pro-CCW? Well, just for rich people anyway...

if you had any evidence to offer that would even suggest that this were not a lie, you would offer it.

Oh look! I did not call anything a lie, or anyone a liar.

[Columbia]

39. Look

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x47843#48058

Quite seriously, as long as rich people were the ones getting concealed firearms permits (which really is not the case where *I* am at), I wouldn't be too likely to encounter a legally concealed firearm-toter, so I wouldn't really care.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x47843#48091

In fact, although I have an income way up in the rarefied percentiles of the population, I live in a postal code that, at least until the last census, had one of the lowest average incomes in Canada.

[NorthernSpy]

38. looking back to where I'm coming from

You wrote: I will bitch at people who I think did something boneheaded and yes leaving a car running unattended is a boneheaded thing to do.

Unless, of course, it's the dead of winter, and the engine has to be running so that the kid in the car doesn't freeze solid. We don't all live in Texas, you know.

Please -- just be reasonable, TexasMexican! No one is promoting the great American automobile as the child-holding pen of choice. My argument is that people who do things that may appear "irresponsible" to others may in fact be taking the least harmful course of action available under the circumstances, and that failure to recognize this is grossly unfair.

I'll tell you what: I'll give you an example from my own life as illustration, and see if you can understand where I'm coming from on this...



When I was a child, my mother needed an operation. She had to stay in the hospital for several days.

It was summer, so there was no school. My sister and I were too young to be left alone all day, and our parents couldn't arrange to have anyone else take care of us. So, after Mom had left for her surgery, we accompanied our father to work.

Back then, our father worked at a mill where he kept the boilers running and also served as watchman. And all the time our mother was gone, we kids put in eight hours each day -- plus some overtime, if I remember correctly -- in the immediate environs of the factory's boiler shed, where we spent much of our time sitting at a little table drawing pictures.

The first day, my father took us with him once on his rounds, and we walked all throughout the plant: up steep stairs, into freight elevators, gingerly across oozing shop floors, around the machinery and forklifts. The noise was constant, and I remember the air felt very close and hot and smelled peculiar, and that the staircases were dark and that it was hard to keep from tripping. I also remember that at one point, we could see the river churning itself completely white far below us through a grate and we kind of balked at that and had to be coaxed over the grate and onward.

I think that having us along slowed my father down too much and put him off schedule, because after that one time, he left us at the boiler shed and told us to stay put while he was away. So that's what we did. Mostly, we preferred to sit outside, because the roar from the boilers was pretty well deafening. We watched the steam ejections, walked a little ways to look at the river, and looked up at the smoke stack and pretended that it was going to fall over -- which is just how it seems if you look up at a really tall object against a backdrop of moving clouds.

It went on like that for hours each day and every day until our mom came home.


I'm aware that at the time, my sister and I were probably just one busybody away from winding up in state custody. It was our good luck that nobody took the initiative of calling the cops on two little girls playing behind the factory gate. Our family was coping with a difficult situation as well as we could. We didn't need -- and I'm sure none of us would have wanted -- to be intervened upon by strangers who presumed to "care" about us, rather than do the decent thing and just mind their own business.

Okay: you really aren't supposed to leave children to amuse themselves at an industrial site. Obviously. I do see the sense in wanting to discourage people from doing stuff like that. I suppose it might be said that we were at risk of serious harm from many things during our time at the factory. But looking back, I can't see what else my folks could have done. They were every bit as conscientious and protective of us as circumstances allowed them to be, and that's all anyone had a right to ask of them.


Mary

[Retired AF Dem]

23. And we all have seen stories of

kids left in cars that manage to put them in gear and kill their mom or dad.

[JayS]

17. "come to the aid of a senior citizen being mugged"

In this scenario...is the parent armed? Just curious. :)

[Randall]

12. Did I say punish?

I don't recall saying punish anyone. The parent made a stupid mistake that resulted in the death of their child. The problem is the parents will try to blame the car maker and the parents will try to sue. It is the parents fault and people need to accept that, no shifting the blame to lack of safety features (the key in the ignition is a safety feature- take it out and it stops things from working).

[iverglas]

18. well the thing is

what you actually said, in response to CO Liberal's musing:

Maybe they could put a safety shutoff on the power windows, like they have on garage door openers. If the window hits an obstruction while closing, it would reverse direction.

was

Or maybe parents can start being more responsible and not leave 3 year olds in running cars.

And that was just a big old



Because CO Liberal was plainly talking about what could be done to prevent harm to 3-year-olds whose parents DID leave them in running cars.

How exactly did your proposal address that issue?

The problem is the parents will try to blame the car maker and the parents will try to sue.

Looked like more smelly fish to me. Which is why I didn't bother saying anything about it. Nothing whatsoever to do with the issue of how to prevent harm to 3-year-olds.

I mean, some of us think that's a good goal.

It is the parents fault and people need to accept that, no shifting the blame to lack of safety features (the key in the ignition is a safety feature- take it out and it stops things from working).

I see we're still needing to study the distinction between assigning blame and solving problems. You're the one playing the blame game. I don't play it, myself.

Blaming someone for something seldom solves a problem. But it's definitely a lot easier to blame someone for something than to think about what could be done to prevent it, and some people really do seem to get a lot of enjoyment out of the blaming. Me, if I saw a reasonably feasible means of preventing harm to children by doing something that it is within our collective power to do, regardless of how else that harm might be prevented if the person within whose power it was to do something did it, I just don't know why I wouldn't advocate it.

I also just don't know why I'd waste my or anyone else's time yammering about blame for harm in response to someone proposing a measure to prevent that harm.

[JayS]

13. Oddly enough, we have a specific law that the parents could...

...be charged under but to my knowledge no one has ever been tried under it. I only remember the law because it was used as a basis for the law that allows parents to be charged if their child gains access to a firearm owned by the parents. The only case I know of where this law was used involved a police officer and the charges were later dropped.

[BlackActivist]

34. You can't prove negligence

Lack of due diligence .... possibly, but not negligence.

[TX-RAT]

6. The child should have been belted in.

First thing you do getting in.
Last thing you do getting out.

[DoNotRefill]

7. Oh my God, how horrible.

I really feel for her family. (no sarcasm)

If the Corrupt Car Industry had stopped fighting Congress and allowed COngress to ban automatic windows, this senseless tragedy could have been avoided. (sarcasm)

[RoeBear]

32. I think the important thing to ask is...

...should we spend more money on educating people about the dangers of leaving kids unattended in cars, or spend the money on retro fitting cars with dangerous power windows. When tragedies like this happen it is, at the least, a good opportunity to teach people about the dangers of negligent parenting.

[Liberal Classic]

36. Article updated?

Notice the time stamp.

I followed the link to read:


June 8, 2004, 12:24PM

DALLAS --A 3-year-old Farmers Branch girl was accidentally asphyxiated when her neck became caught in the power-operated window of a pickup truck, the Dallas County medical examiner's office has ruled.

Police said Yencey Ayala was reaching out the window and accidentally hit the button with her knee or foot when her head became caught Sunday evening. Ayala's mother was sitting next to her in the driver's seat, talking to her husband who was standing outside the truck, when the accident happened.


Was she in the car, or outside? I don't know that it matters at this point. Young children can get into trouble in the blink of an eye.

It's human nature to second guess things. Since the police have decided not to press charges, I'll extend my condolences to the parents. To conscientious parents, the state could inflict no greater punishment anyway.