Karen's Adoption Links Blog

Our children in the New World Article in Russian about adoption http://grani.ru/Society/Kids/m.145700.html

From USAToday Wide disparity exists in sentences for leaving kids to die in hot cars By Allen G. Breed, Associated Press July 29, 2007 MANASSAS, Va. — Kevin Kelly is a law-abiding citizen who, much distracted, left his beloved 21-month-old daughter in a sweltering van for seven hours. Frances Kelly had probably been dead for more than four hours by the time a neighbor noticed her strapped in her car seat; when rescue personnel removed the girl from the vehicle, her skin was red and blistered, her fine, carrot-colored hair matted with sweat. Two hours later, her body temperature was still nearly 106 degrees. What is the appropriate punishment for a doting parent responsible for his child's death? A judge eventually spared Kelly a lengthy term in prison. Still, it is a question that is asked dozens of times each year. Since the mid-1990s, the number of children who died of heat exhaustion while trapped inside vehicles has risen dramatically, totaling around 340 in the past 10 years....

Chase Harrison/Dmitry Yakovlev‘s death was a tragic accident. Miles Harrison was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his son. This is a controversial ruling here in the US as well as Russia. The verdict, whether it was right or wrong, had nothing to do with the fact that Chase/Dmitry was born in Russia, and was an adopted child. Thirty to 40 children die each year in the US due to hyperthermia while in left unattended in child car seats. Most of those children are left in cars accidentally; when parents forget take the child to daycare. Often because they are not the usual person to take the child to daycare. Court decisions and penalties are not consistent in these cases. Some parents are charged with a crime, some are not. Sometimes they are convicted and penalized or imprisoned, sometimes they are not. The Virginia Prosecutor believed Mr. Harrison should have been convicted, or the State would not have brought the charge against him. ~~~ What happened in thi...

In the US, children must be kept buckled into a child car seat in the back seat of a car. Child car seats were moved from the front seat to the back seat in the mid 90's after air bags were installed in cars. Children located in child car seats in the installed in the front passenger seat were dying due to impact with an inflated air bag even during very minor accidents. Since that time, children are to be in the back seat. Air bags have been redesigned so that they inflate at a slower rate and are less likely to injure a child or small adult. But still, children are to be in the back seat, and therefore they are not visible to the driver, even in the rear view mirror. Since the mid 90's children's deaths from air bags have virtually disappeared, but a new problem has emerged... children being forgotten in back installed car seats.

Criminal standards are set individually by each US state law. While they are similar, they each contain standards by which crimes committed in that state are judged. http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-36.1 B. If, in addition, the conduct of the defendant was so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life, he shall be guilty of aggravated involuntary manslaughter, a felony punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than one nor more than 20 years, one year of which shall be a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment.

Virginia has one of the strongest child car seat laws in the US... requiring children to be in a car seat or booster until age 8. http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+46.2-1095 A. Any person who drives on the highways of Virginia any motor vehicle manufactured after January 1, 1968, shall ensure that any child, up to age eight, whom he transports therein is provided with and properly secured in a child restraint device of a type which meets the standards adopted by the United States Department of Transportation. Further, rear-facing child restraint devices shall be placed in the back seat of a vehicle. In the event the vehicle does not have a back seat, the child restraint device may be placed in the front passenger seat only if the vehicle is either not equipped with a passenger side airbag or the passenger side airbag has been deactivated.

Here are examples of car seats used for US children over age 1 and up to age 4.