Huckleberries Online

Mom Faces Charge In Car Seat Death

Posted by DFO

Feb. 4, 2009 4:05 p.m. • 15 comments

Item: Post Falls woman faces vehicular homicide charge as a result of improperly installed car seat/Kootenai MPO

More Info: Spokane County prosecutors charged a Post Falls woman with vehicular homicide Tuesday in the death of her infant daughter, who was severely injured by a car’s airbag while riding in a rear-facing car seat in Spokane. If convicted, it could be the first time in Washington a parent has been held accountable for the death of a child stemming from an improperly installed car seat, prosecutors and police say.

Question: Is this an excessive charge by the Spokane County prosecutors against a grieving mother?

15 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Sisyphus on February 04 at 3:38 p.m.
Its been 22 months since the accident, Dave. Mom said she regularly put the child in that seat facing the wrong way. Mom also testified that she was sleep deprived and blacked out before the collision of her car into the back of a van. There’s enough to go on, but I wouldn’t wanna try it.
hmoffsuite on February 04 at 4:08 p.m.
Sis. I was curious what you might say about this case. Generally, what is the test for vehicular homicide? Tia.
thawtfulreader on February 04 at 8:52 p.m.
As Cindy H said elsewhere, it’s virtually pounded into a new mother’s head at the hospital how a car seat is supposed to be installed. NEVER in a front seat with a airbag. If the vehicle only has two seats, then the airbag MUST be disabled on the passenger side, if it can’t be, you can’t safely or legally transport the child.

If you have a middle seat in the back seat, the child car seat goes there, otherwise pick a side. The middle back seat is the safest in almost all serious collisions.
BethB on February 05 at 7:46 a.m.
But she did use a car seat…. And now she’s charged with a Class A felony? The theme of gradations is really popping up a lot here…. What’s scary is the prosecutor’s justification: “It fits the criteria,” is what she said. Just because it fits the technical parts of the statute does not, in any way, mandate the charge. Prosecutors are supposed to use discretion too.

Maybe they intend to terrify the woman with a felony charge and then offer to plead it to a misdemeanor. Fun games at Spokane High!
Bob on February 05 at 7:56 a.m.
it’s obviously a tough one, the prosecutors sat on it for a long time. I think she should be made an example of, for other careless moms and dads risking the precious lives of their babies.

Would you feel different if she’d been strapping her baby to a box of blasting caps and one day tossed a torch in it?

Because positioning her baby so the exploding airbag would blow up baby’s head is functionally the same. This isn’t rare and esoteric knowledge only imparted to mothers who have reached the ninth ring of the motherhood awareness. They teach this stuff everywhere.

5 years in prison and supervised release for the remainder of her max seems fair to me.
Sisyphus on February 05 at 8:08 a.m.
LOL Bob. Talk about your nanny state. Should it also take her other two kids away and sterilize her?
wheels on February 05 at 8:57 a.m.
After failing to charge and prosecute the inept and over zealous Spokane Police Officer(s) that caused the death of mentally impaired janitor Otto Zehm, this one smells.
moscow_minidoka on February 05 at 9:37 a.m.
I think the mother has suffered enough, but should also be made an example of. Didn’t the news report that her other children were ALSO improperly belted? This isn’t rocket science…

Can we find middle ground without turning her into a convict? Some sort of educational community service, where she scares the bejesus out of people by talking about how her ineptitude resulted in her precious baby being killed?

I have three children of my own, and all three of them are in booster and/or car seats in the back of our car. Yes, the baby seats can be a pain in the neck, but I’d rather take a few extra seconds to have them safe than to have them dead.

This mother suffers either from a low IQ, a substance abuse problem, or a reckless disregard to the safety of her children. Don’t throw her in jail, but make an example out of her as a warning to other stupid, tweaking, or incompetent parents.
LukeB on February 05 at 3:02 p.m.
My wife and I were discussing this yesterday. We eventually came to the agreement that putting her in jail will not accomplish anything.

Have her do community service and public service announcements about the correct use of car seats.

As Bob apparently doesn’t understand, intent does matter.
Cindy_H on February 05 at 3:13 p.m.
My husband (who sees no shades of gray) and I discussed this yesterday, too. His take: “You can’t outlaw stupid and you can’t idiot-proof the world. If they throw her in jail, are you going to take care of her other two kids?”
My take: “When stupid causes the death of child, stupid should be punished.”
It was chilly last night, wasn’t it?
Aerie on February 05 at 3:28 p.m.
Boise had a similar case about 10 years ago, where a woman had her baby improperly belted into the front seat. In a minor 5mph collision the airbag threw the baby out the passenger window.

Sisyphus might know the particulars and the punishment. It was suggested that she be made into an example as well. I don’t think that works. Long term community service under probation might be a very appropriate sentence, I think.
Sisyphus on February 05 at 3:49 p.m.
Your husband sounds like a wise man, Cindy. Methinks no judge would wanna send mama to do hard time for this. But we only know so much about mom’s negligence and willingness to change her correctable ways. The sentence would surely take all that and the two young kids into consideration.

God, aerie, I’d purged that one from the memory banks, mostly cause only part of the baby went out the window. I don’t recall the punishment. I don’t believe that was as egregious as this one since mom’s only culpable act in that scenario was the incorrect placement of the child seat when it was not as widely known. Here mom not only caused the accident she stated she habitually put the baby in front the wrong way. Sometimes stupid should pay a restrictive penalty.
Bob on February 06 at 12:15 a.m.
LukeB, I think I get intent better than you. But here’s an experiment you can try, get really drunk and drive your car through a school crossing full of kids. Then argue the whole you didn’t intend to wipe out a half dozen kids. I’m sure it will work for you.

But enough of snarkfesting with you LukeB, I’m mostly shocked and amazed to read you have a wife!

I totally had you wrong.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.