SayUncle: lawbreaker
A Franklin woman will serve six months’ probation for leaving her 4-year-old daughter in a running vehicle while she went into a store.
Judith L. Rogers was charged with leaving a child unattended in a running motor vehicle, a class B misdemeanor.
My truck has one of those electronic keypads on the door so I can unlock it without a key. A few times I’ve had the kids in the car and realize that the place I stopped at for gas doesn’t have pay at the pump. So, I leave the air on, lock the door, and run inside to pay. The truck is locked and I always make certain that I can see my vehicle. It’s a lot more convenient than unstrapping two kids; taking them into a dirty gas station; then having to buy them a Slushee because once they see it, they must have one; herding them back to the truck while they’re under their initial sugary beverage rush; getting them back in their seats; and strapping them back in. I didn’t know I was breaking the law.
June 11th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Just about every year here in Texas someone leaves a child, usually an infant in a car seat or a toddler, in a car without A/C running “just for a minute” and returns to a dead child killed by heat stroke. That is the reason for the law against leaving kids in cars. I think the age limit here in Texas is 14 years old.
As far as leaving a child in a running car with A/C on, all I can think is that one good pull by a toddler on the shifter and the car starts moving….
June 11th, 2009 at 10:00 am
They’re pretty well strapped in.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:19 am
look for a forthcoming feature in some future year’s version of the soccer-mommy minivan or SUV: transmission cut-out code lock, so you can leave engine and A/C running with no chance of the vehicle moving. i’d make it an extension of the remote starter of some kind, but i’m no mechanic, so…
June 11th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Zero tolerance! The Children! Clap her in irons, lock her up!
Six months separated from her kids. That’ll help her child.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:44 am
The law is an attempt to save us from our own stupidity. It is based on the assumption you can not make a good decdion by yourself and must have a law tell you what to do.
Most parents who expect to spend more than a few minutes takes the kids with them. However like a person who has a child in a carseat and stop in the standing lane to get the drycleaning or pay for gas and leaves the car running is not endangering the kids. The worst endangerment is that someone may steal the car with the kids if it left running. Being able to lock the car with ACrunning saves children and dogs which can not be brought into a store.
Cops leave the AC on all the time if they have a dog, because the dog could easily suffer heat stroke. Cops also have left children in the car when they have to put them in the car. It is better than little kids running around in an unsafe area.
This is a stupid law. If a parent kills their own child by leaving them in the car they have been punished. Parents have to be trusted to the the best they can for children otherwiise parental authority is a fantasy.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:13 am
For the record, this lady was going into a tanning salon for a session, so it’s actually pretty stupid of her, but I agree that laws specifically prohibiting the act of leaving a child in the car are rediculous.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Don’t you turn the car off before pumping gas? I thought that was common practice (or required by law, even). If the car isn’t running, it doesn’t sound like the law applies.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Yes, i do while pumping. but if i have to leave, i start it up.
June 11th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
It’s worse than that: you’re breaking the law even without the kids there. The last couple of winters, the TV news from Trashville has reported on people getting ticketed for warming up their cars. It’s apparently against TN law to leave an unattended car running. I guess it’s considered a baited car-thief field.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
They have that “no untended car running law” in the last town I lived in before this one.
In the winter I start my cold blooded ’72 GMC Sprint a good ten minutes before taking the youngin to school in the wee hours. Of course I left it locked, while warming up.
Limousine Liberals love laws that don’t affect them but do tell the rest of us what to do.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I have a 2006 car that will unlock the driver’s door if the key is in the ignition and the door is closed.
Fortunately, because I lived in cold weather area, I also have a $99 remote starter. Even if the car is running, I can quickly press the remote start button on the keypad and the ‘remote’ takes over. I can then exit the vehicle – with the keys – and lock the door.
Technically, it may be against the law to remotely start your vehicle in some areas. And that would be a stupid law, as the vehicle is not drivable. I’ve installed enough of them and I know you cannot put the vehicle into drive without disengaging the remote start. (Remote start can only be installed in vehicles equipped with an automatic transmission.)
June 12th, 2009 at 11:50 am
With the new hybrid vehicles, I’m surprised that AC systems haven’t moved to electrically powered pumps. Upshot; system can be designed to run at one optimal speed, raising efficiency, meaning a smaller pump can be used.
If I’m not mistaken, the very first automotive AC units were trunk mounted and electrically powered… but there wasn’t enough battery power available to run them very long without the engine, so they were keyed to the “Run” circuits.
If you can run the entire car with AC for ~30 miles without starting the engine, surely you can engineer a timer that’ll let the AC continue to operate for 10 minutes after key-off.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Every winter the county police remind us that it’s illegal to leave your car running unattended.