A woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming several entities that had been responsible to provide safe care to her toddler boy, but instead moved him from one day care to another and then left the child behind in a van for six hours until he died from heat exposure, all without her knowledge, as reported by the Courthouse News Service.
The mother found out about her son's death when she heard a newscaster report it that day on television.
The suit was filed on behalf of the boy, G.P., in Suffolk County Superior Court by his mother V.C.
Named as defendants are Associated Early Care and Education Inc. (AECE), (W.Y.), (Y.T.), and Feliz LLC. Boston-based attorney Michael Stone represents V.C.
V.C. claims that her son's day care provider was changed without her knowledge: "As of September 5, 2011, AECE, without consulting (V.C.), changed (G.P.'s) day care provider to (Y.T.)"
A van collected G.P. from his home daily to take him to his day care. V.C. stated in the suit, "In the early morning hours of September 12, 2011, (G.P) was picked up at his home by Gloria's Kids Transportation, and the driver, (L.M.), belted (G.P.) into his seat in the transportation van. (L.M.) picked up other children at locations in Dorchester, who were being transported to Feliz's day care. (G.P.) was the only child in the van assigned to (Y.T.'s) day care center. (Y.T.'s) day care center was scheduled to be the first drop-off stop on the trip. (L.M.) failed to stop at (Y.T.'s) day care center on September 12, 2011…"
According to V.C., L.M. parked and locked the van in the hot sun next to the Feliz day care – without inspecting to make sure there were no children still on board.
At approximately 3 p.m. that afternoon L.M. returned to the van and discovered G.P. had already perished. The child had been in the car for about 6 hours.
L. M. is not a defendant in the lawsuit.
The suit states, "(Y.T.), despite…knowledge that (G.P.) was scheduled to attend (Y.T.) day care on September 12, 2011, failed to contact (V.C.) or any other contacts identified in (G.P.'s) file, after he failed to attend day care on September 12, 2011. Even after learning of (G.P.'s) death, neither (Y.T.) nor anyone else called (V.C.) to inform her that (G.P.) had not been dropped off at day care or to inform (V.C.) that he had died after being left in the transportation van."
According to the complaint, after G.P.'s death, "(W.Y.) informed the public that AECE did not require day care providers to contact parents to inform them that their children were absent from day care until after four days had passed."
The suit asked for both compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful death, negligence, gross negligence and pain and suffering.
Loosing a child in any scenario is gut wrenching. However, if you believe that your loved one died due to someone else's negligence, contact a personal injury lawyer to file your lawsuit and sue for damages.