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Dilemma over charges for kids left in cars

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2015-08-03 13:35Shanghai Daily Editor: Wang Fan

Following a series of recent incidents of children being left alone in cars, sometimes with fatal consequences, questions have been asked over whether parents should face charges.

Earlier this month in Shanghai, a father who left his baby daughter unattended in his car for four hours received nothing more than a telling off from police.

While under Chinese law, parents who leave their kids in cars can be charged Ñ in fatal incidents with negligent homicide Ñ in the past three years, none have faced court action.

Often it is believed that the parents have already suffered enough.

However, in incidents occurring when a child was under the supervision of someone in a professional capacity, charges have been brought.

In a survey by news portal sina.com published on Saturday, more than over 80 percent of 9,351 people taking part said that parents whose children die after being left alone in cars should be prosecuted.

"If someone's negligence causes another's death, then it's negligent homicide, a netizen using the name "Guodongbuding 118" commented.

Between July 7 to 25, across China there were eight cases of parents or grandparents accidentally leaving children in cars. One child died and another is thought to have severe brain damage.

On July 7, a man left his 4-month-old daughter alone in a car for four hours in the parking lot of a Jiading District shopping mall, with one window partly open to provide ventilation, reported Shanghai Television.

Hearing the distressed child crying, a cleaner at the mall called the police.

Police managed to open the car door and get to the child.

The father, surnamed Xu, showed up as police were about to send the child to hospital, after the mall had broadcast appeals for him for more than an hour, said STV.

Xu told police that he had to go to an appointment and left his daughter in the car as he could not find a babysitter, reported STV.

He also admitted that he had done this a number of times before.

After being reprimanded by police, Xu was allowed to go.

In April, a 19-month-old girl in Songjiang District suffocated after her father forgot that he'd left her in a his car for hours while he was running errands.

Meanwhile in Linyi City, in Shandong Province a kindergarten director has been detained after a 3-year-old girl died after being left in his car for nine hours last month. The director was giving the girl a lift to the kindergarten but forgot about her when they arrived.

The question over whether parents should face charges has divided opinion.

"Many parents view their kid as family property rather than human beings. We cannot fully protect children's rights if we don't punish those parents properly," said "Guodongbuding 118," whose post gained the most votes of support in the survey sina.com.

However, Wu Dong, a local lawyer, told Shanghai Daily that this tough approach was unlikely to be implemented.

"It's hard to punish parents who've just lost their beloved kids," said Wu.

Wu said it would be more useful to address issues such as the insufficient number of public daycare options where children can be sent during vacations or when parents are busy.

There is also a big financial burden for parents who both usually work full-time having to be with their kids all the time during the holidays, added Wu.

Others agreed that parents had already suffered enough.

"Parents should not be charged as the punishment of losing a child is harsh enough for them, and sometimes they do make mistakes, " Xin Ying, a 38-year-old mother with a 7-year-old son told Shanghai Daily.

"But for professionals, like school bus drivers, I think they should be charged as it's their job," added Xin.

"Compared with legislation, I think having alerting devices in cars and public places is more useful," she added.

Summer holidays are a peak time for accidents involving children.

A doctor, surnamed Zheng with the Children's Hospital of Fudan University told Shanghai Daily that they are seeing some 90 children brought in each day Ñ compared to around 60 a day during winter months.

On July 30, Nanjing, capital of neighboring Jiangsu Province, released a draft of regulations on the protection of minors, including forbidding children aged under 6 to be left alone.

  

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