Toddler falls out of car; “mother” doesn’t notice for a mile and a half
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“A QUIET DRIVE: Rebbecca Fowler, 21, was at a friend’s house in Wichita, Kan., and when she got home she found her 2-year-old boy was not in the back seat of her car. He was definitely there when she left her friend’s, so she retraced her path. He had unfastened his seat belt, opened the car door, and fallen out about a mile and a half from home — and she hadn’t noticed. Samantha Garcia, 22, found him running down the street, bleeding and crying. When Fowler pulled up, ‘We wouldn’t let her have him until we knew what happened,’ Garcia said. ‘The police were on their way.’ Officers said Fowler didn’t have a valid driver’s license, nor a child seat in the car. The boy was hospitalized in protective custody, and the next day, after police consulted with prosecutors, Fowler was arrested. (RC/Wichita Eagle) …Which means it didn’t occur to the dolts to do a field sobriety test on her when they had the chance.”
Randy is becoming very perceptive in regards to likely alcoholism and its cure. Ms. Fowler leaves a toddler unbelted. She has no child car seat. She doesn’t have a driver’s license. She drives for several minutes, arriving home, before she realizes her son is no longer in the car. And in the story behind the story, she likely lied to officers, telling them she “ripped a car seat out of the vehicle in despair when she couldn’t find her son;” officers said they don’t believe she had a child car seat. Gross carelessness, impaired judgment, a “rules don’t apply to me” attitude, an apparent belief that “nothing can go wrong; I am invincible” and lying to law enforcers are just a few of the behavioral indications of alcoholism found in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics, but they are enough for the addictionologist to ascribe exceedingly high odds of alcohol or other-drug addiction in Ms. Fowler.
As soon as someone is suspected of gross neglect, especially of a child, the perpetrator should be tested for alcohol and other drugs. Any officer can test for alcohol; if none is found, a Drug Recognition Officer (DREs are specially trained for this) should be summoned to check for other drugs. Instead, yet another likely alcoholic’s addiction is allowed to progress, unimpeded, increasing the likelihood that tragedy will ultimately occur. Ms. Fowler’s son got lucky this time. Next time he might not be so fortunate.
(Story and tagline from “This is True,” copyright 2012 by Randy Cassingham, used with permission. If you haven’t already subscribed to his newsletter—the free one at least, or the paid one I get, with more than twice the stories—I highly recommend it: www.ThisIsTrue.com.)