DHS warns about hot car danger after two deaths

In the final days of summer last year, a baby girl became the first foster child in Oklahoma known to have died from being left in a hot car.

Days later, a baby boy became the second.

Afterward, officials at the Department of Human Services considered different ways to prevent such tragedies in the future.

There were discussions about providing foster parents with window clings or window stickers. There was talk of finding donors to pay for devices that sound an alarm if a child is left in a car seat and the driver walks away.

Ultimately, DHS officials decided to go with an education effort.

They started with sending out a flyer about vehicle safety that strongly emphasizes the danger of hot car deaths.

“It only takes a car 10 minutes to heat up 20 degrees inside and become deadly,” the flyer states.

“DID YOU REMEMBER??? Check the back seat! ... A CHILD’S LIFE IS WORTH THE TIME. YOU CAN’T REWIND, LOOK BEHIND A SECOND TIME!”

DHS mailed the flyer to foster and adoptive parents in November then emailed the same flyer in December.

DHS is following up on that effort this month. DHS child welfare workers have been instructed to deliver a new flyer in May to each home they oversee and to discuss car safety with foster and adoptive parents.

DHS Director Ed Lake defended the decision to focus on education over other steps.

“While there are an abundance of ideas, tips and devices on the market, there unfortunately is not a widely available foolproof solution for preventing these types of incidents,” he told The

Oklahoman last week. In researching alarm devices, DHS found a government study that concluded in 2012 they “were inconsistent and unreliable in their performance.”

“Research into these methods with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the American Academy of Pediatrics ultimately guided the steps DHS has taken,” Lake said.

DHS also checked what child welfare agencies in other states did to prevent hot car deaths. “No other state was found to be using those devices,” Lake said.

“Even the best parents and caregivers, when circumstances force them out of their normal daily routine, can overlook a sleeping baby in a car which makes these types of tragedies so heartbreaking,” Lake said.

The baby girl, MameNeta Attocknie, died Sept. 20. She was 4 months old.

Her foster father, Billy Dewayne Allen, 46, of Geronimo, was supposed to drop her off at a day care after taking his son to school but forgot, according to a DHS report on the death and other records.

Allen, who had worked a night shift, went home to sleep. The girl’s body was discovered nine hours later inside the vehicle.

Allen and his wife were first approved as foster parents in 2001 and had cared for more than 60 children. Their home is no longer open for placement of foster children.

Allen was charged in November with seconddegree manslaughter. The misdemeanor case is pending. Also in November, Mame-Neta’s mother filed a wrongful death claim against DHS demanding $1 million.

The baby boy, Justin House, died Oct. 5. He was 1 month old.

His foster mother, Shelly Hopkins, of Muskogee, was supposed to take him to a day care. He fell asleep in the car seat, she forgot and drove to work, according to a DHS report and other records.

She left eight hours later. She saw Justin dead in the car seat after getting a frozen drink for her daughter at a store. The Muskogee County district attorney declined to charge her, saying the death was accidental.

DHS had placed the boy with Hopkins, his aunt, after he was born addicted to methamphetamine, the DA said in a news release.

The cause of death in each case was determined to be hyperthermia.