Boy, 5, dies after being left in car for six hours
The New Paper
Sunday, Jun 24, 2012
The primary school teacher would normally drop her five-year-old son at a kindergarten before heading to work.
On Tuesday, however, she was running late and drove straight to her school in Bandar Baru Uda, Johor Baru. Apparently, she had forgotten that her son, Sharnaath Kumar, five, was still asleep in the car.
Soon after the teacher, who is in her 40s, reached the school at 7am, she switched off the engine and went straight to her class, the New Straits Times (NST)reported.
At about 1.30pm, school staff saw the teacher running frantically to her car, crying out her son's name. By then, more than six hours had passed since the boy was locked inside the car.
A school canteen worker, who wanted to be known only as Mr Hamat, told NST that he saw the teacher screaming when she found her son sprawled on his back in the back seat, frothing at the mouth. Investigations revealed that Sharnaath's eyes were open and he was bleeding from the nose.
Said Mr Hamat: "He had stopped breathing. The teachers tried to revive the boy, but to no avail. The teacher (mother) collapsed against the side of her vehicle, crying."
Other witnesses said they did not hear or see anyone in the car as its windows were said to be tinted.
The boy was rushed to the Johor Specialist Hospital in Jalan Abdul Samad and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
A post-mortem revealed he had died in the vehicle.
Sharnaath was enrolled at Rainbow Kindergarten, located next to the primary school where his mother teaches.
The kindergarten administrator said children usually arrive by 7am, but refused to talk about the incident. She added that she had to have consent of the parents before talking.
NST said in its report that several family members and friends warned journalists not to talk to the mother.
Small groups of friends and relatives, as well as the teacher's colleagues, were seen visiting the family from 1pm on Wednesday. By 3pm, the road leading to their house was lined with cars and the crowd had swelled.
Meanwhile, Johor police chief Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff told The Star that the police will investigate the case for negligence.
He said that while he understood the mother's grief, the police have to do their duty.
"We have yet to record the statement of the mother, but we will try to complete the papers as soon as possible," he said.
Mr Mohd Mokhtar added that the public prosecutor would decide whether to charge the mother.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
