In my area - Car in the driveway, dad working on another car. A 2 year old boy climbs into his father's car, closes the door, and starts pushing buttons. Fortunately, one of the buttons he pushed was for the emergency blinkers, which a family member eventually noticed. The boy was unconscious on the front seat of the car. 911 was called. According to KYW, the boy is at Cooper Medical Center, in serious to critical condition by recovering. But, if he hadn't pushed the button for the emergency blinkers, how long would it have been before everyone started asking "Where's Billy" and actually looked in the car? If the car had been locked, this could not have happened.

By Ilovetom on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 08:25 am:

DG!

By Karen~admin on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 09:50 am:

I've always left my car doors locked, no matter where my car is. Those type things are so tragic for the families, and could SO easily be avoided!

By Dawnk777 on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 10:22 am:

Poor kid. I hope he's okay.

By Vicki on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 12:07 pm:

I also feel so bad for this family. My only question is who was supposed to be watching him? How could a 2 year old be missing for that long to be in that bad of shape and no one knew he was missing??

By Kym on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 12:51 pm:

This JUST happened to us while camping! We had kids all playing together and all of sudden my 2year old was GONE, with 20 adults watching them play! We all dispursed and looked for him! One of the little girls heard him in the car saying "what" when we were calling his name, luckily the window was cracked, and he was only missing for about 1 minute. My 9 year old got in the car to get something out and didn't notice the little guy climbing in with him!

A good lesson to share Ginny, Thanks

By Vicki on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 01:22 pm:

Oh Kym, I totally understand that it can happen. But your child was only missing for 1 minute and it was noticed. This child was missing long enough to be unconscious! That doesn't happen in just a few minutes!

By Kym on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 02:06 pm:

Vicki, I agree, but if the window had not been cracked I don't know that we would have thought to look in it! and it was Parked right where we were sitting, eventually we may have seen him standing at the steering wheel pretending to drive which is what he was doing! I totally agree, how can it be that long without noticing!
If you are going to be pre occupied, like fixing a car, just dont' have the responsibility of child care at the same time!

By Lauram on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - 11:59 am:

My kids- even that young knew how to unlock the car- they are very mechanical. My youngest son could unlock baby gates and would undo his car seat at 11 months. Now he knows, "You need a license to drive a car" and he likes to take my license out of my wallet and look at it. I can totally see how things like this happen! He's also had many poison control episodes including giving himself an asthma treatment. (Not all medicines are baby proofed and even though they are always stored in the medicine cabinet, he can get there if he's on a mission!) I could go on and on with stories about this. (And I'm VERY VIGILANT!) You just need to watch them at all times. That's the only true way for curious kids to be truly safe. I agree with making sure someone else has the responsibility for the child care if you are involved with a project like working on the car.

By Ginny~moderator on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - 01:25 pm:

Laura, I know just what you mean. My oldest took screws out of his crib before he was 2 years old; got his glasses when he was about 3 and had the screws out of the earpieces, without tools, very shortly thereafter. Because of him, I started keeping all medicines in a tool chest with a combination lock, and all cleaning supplies in a closet with a padlock on the door. When he was about 6, he put the stepstool up to the kitchen counter and put two phone books on the counter so he could reach the baby aspirin on top of the kitchen wall cabinet, while I was bathing his younger brother.