COOKED ALIVE
Heartbroken dad rages ‘You killed my daughter’ after tot, 2, left in 54C car for EIGHT HOURS by her aunt and uncle
THE heartbroken father of a baby girl, 2, found dead after being left inside a 54C car for EIGHT hours by her aunt and uncle raged "you killed my daughter".
Milliani Robertson-Lawrence was found inside the locked car at a railway station in New Jersey on Friday afternoon.
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The van had been parked at PATCO Lindenwold rail station and was first spotted around 2.30pm.
However, officers said they only received a report at 3.38pm and estimate the young child may have been left inside the van for more than eight hours.
Authorities broke the van's window but were too late to save the 22-month-old girl, who was pronounced dead at the scene at 3.54pm.
The girl's father Nasir Lawrence told : “Once I got the call, I thought it was a joke ... I pretty much broken down and lost my mind.”
Lawrence says his daughter had been in the car of her aunt and uncle at the time.
Once I got the call, I thought it was a joke ... I pretty much broken down and lost my mind.
Nasir Lawrence
He had been serving jail time for the past 18 months and was trying to regain custody when he said he got the news.
He asked? “How do you forget that there’s a 2 year old who makes a lot of noise in the car?
“What did you do for eight hours that you forgot a 2 year old? Exactly what were you doing at the PATCO station?”
"You killed my daughter. You took her from me.”
Family members did not return until another three hours after the infant was first spotted in the car, according to .
No charges have been filed against the toddler’s family, but the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office is still investigating.
The girl’s official cause of death has not been released.
Temperatures in Lindenwold, a small town 15 miles southeast of Philadelphia, soared to around 30C on the day of the girl's death.
According to the safety group Kids and Cars, 38 children die every year in the United States from being left in hot car.
The phenomenon is called vehicular heatstroke - where a person's body rapidly overheats while they're inside a vehicle.
The girl’s death comes less than one month after twin infants died in a sweltering-hot car in 30C heat after being left inside a Honda Accord in the Bronx.
The boy and girl, named Luna and Phoenix, were found dead inside with internal temperatures of 42C.
Their father, Iraq war veteran Juan Rodriguez, 39, appeared in a New York court facing charges of criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter.
He is accused of killing his one-year-old twins after leaving them for eight hours in the backseat of his car.
Many children "forgotten" by their parents
Some 54 per cent of cases have been when children have been "forgotten" by their parents, while 26 per cent have been when children have gained access to a car on their own and not been able to get out, according to the website which has been compiling data since 1998.
Only 18.9 per cent of hot car deaths involve negligent parents who have knowingly left their children - using the car as a "babysitter" while they went to work or even a bar.
Figures prior to 1998 are very low - around 25 cases in total - which some experts put down to many parents using forward-facing car seats rather than backward-facing ones.
In recent years, research has suggested that rear-facing seats are safer in accidents - and British parents have been encouraged to keep their children in them until they're four.
However, this means the youngsters are out of their direct view.
University of South Florida neuroscientist Professor David Diamond, who coined the term Forgotten Baby Syndrome (FBS), says the state is caused when the brain's "habit memory" - which allows us to perform repetitive tasks such as driving to work automatically - overrides our "prospective memory" which is how we plan and carry out a future task.
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In a piece he wrote for Prof Diamond said that each parent he studied also appeared to have created a "false memory" that they had indeed dropped their child off - which caused them to be oblivious that the child was still in the car.
His studies have found that even small changes to routine - such as taking a different route, sleep deprivation and other everyday stresses and distractions - can make these memory lapses more likely.
Dozens charged with murder or manslaughter
In the US, just under 50 per cent of states have some kind of legislative charge to punish parents who leave their children alone in their cars - and dozens of parents and caregivers have been charged with manslaughter or even murder for "forgetting" children.
Prof Diamond is opposed to jailing parents over the deaths of their children in such cases - arguing that it's not their fault.
How to keep your kids safe
- “Look Before You Lock” ‐ Get in the habit of always opening the back door to check the back seat before leaving your vehicle. Make sure no child has been left behind.
- Create a reminder to check the back seat.
- Put something you'll need like your phone, handbag, employee ID or brief case, etc., in the back seat so that you have to open the back door to retrieve that item every time you park.
- Keep a large stuffed animal in the child's car seat. When the child is placed in the car seat, place the stuffed animal in the front passenger seat. It's a visual reminder that the child is in the back seat.
- Make sure you have a strict policy in place with your childcare provider to call you immediately if your child does not show up as planned.
- Keep vehicles locked at all times, even in driveways or garages. Ask home visitors, child care providers and neighbours to do the same.
- Keep car keys and remote openers out of reach of children.
- Teach toddlers how to honk the horn of a car if they become trapped inside.
- Never leave children alone in or around cars; not even for a minute.
- If a child goes missing, immediately check the inside passenger compartments and trunks of all vehicles in the area very carefully, even if they are locked. A child may lock the car doors after entering a vehicle on their own, but may not be able to unlock them.
- If you see a child alone in a vehicle, get involved. Call police immediately. If the child seems hot or sick, get them out of the vehicle as quickly as possible.
- Be especially careful during busy times, schedule changes and periods of crisis or holidays. This is when many tragedies occur.
(Tips from a non-profit organisation dedicated to saving the lives of young children and pets in and around vehicles)
Iraq war veteran, Juan Rodriquez, whose twins died in 30C car after he left them there 'accidentally' supported by wife and family as he appears in court
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