Child’s death spurs lawmaker to again fight for stricter rules
OAKLAND PARK – A Florida lawmaker vowed Thursday to beef up a law she’s proposing to equip day care vans with lifesaving alarm systems — aiming to prevent tragedies like the one that recently befell a 2-year-old boy in Oakland Park.
And she wants to prevent child care workers from sidestepping the proper use of the alarms.
State Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, said she has decided to revise her legislative bill to directly address problems uncovered by Broward County authorities, who are looking into the death last week of little Noah Sneed.
The boy’s body was found July 29, a Monday afternoon, after he was left in a day care van for about five hours on a hot day. The driver of the van told investigators she had turned off an alarm in the vehicle before the children were taken off the van that morning, according to a county report.
Currently, the Broward County law requires workers to check the seats to make sure all children are off before turning off the alarm.
In response to Noah’s death, Stewart said Thursday she will amend her proposed legislation for a statewide law, which would require the safety alarms to sound before a day care worker could ever disable it, and they “wouldn’t have a way of turning it off unless you check everything.”
If drivers were to turn off the alarms before seats are checked, they would face penalties, she said. As the legislation is revised, she’ll establish what the penalties will be. “You’d think if they’d have an alarm the last thing they’d want to do is disengage it. That’s extreme human error,” Stewart said. “If you’ve got the ability to make sure kids are safe, it’s hard to forgive it.”
Stewart has already filed the Child Safety Alarm Act three times. It requires day care vehicles to install alarms from among a list of choices that have been approved by the state Department of Children and Families. According to Stewart, the devices would cost between $250 and $500.
Stewart said she first brought up the bill in 2017 as a result of a death that touched her: 3-year-old Myles Hill, who was left in a day care van for 12 hours in August of that year.
Even though Stewart is trying to address the lack of a statewide law, Broward County has had one on the books since July 2013.
The county law requires any transport van with six or more passengers to have a child safety alarm device installed. The county law mandates that an alarm is activated once the ignition is turned on, and blares — at a sound that could be heard for 500 feet — within one minute until it’s turned off.
Although Broward had the law, it didn’t matter in Noah’s case: The driver turned off the alarm before the van was checked for children, according to a county inspectors’ report.
County records show that the driver, whose name is excluded from the report, parked the van, exited the driver’s side, then walked around the outside to turn off the safety alarm. Then she went to the passenger side of the van to take the children off at Ceressa’s Enrichment and Empowerment Academy.
She didn’t do the visual sweep of the seats before turning off the alarm, according to officials.
“The driver did not follow the correct procedures for operating the alarm,” the report said, attributing their findings to the driver’s statement to investigators at the Broward Sheriff ’s Office.
The county’s Child Care Licensing and Enforcement division found the day care center had six violations, and five of those carry fines of up to $500.
No one has been charged in Noah’s death. The Broward Sheriff ’s Office is investigating it as a possible manslaughter case. The agency said no additional details would be immediately released.