Here is another question on this subject:

If the mother of the baby had enough time to call her mother to come over so she could take her to the hospital then why didn't she have time to call 911 or find a car seat? Just seems like there was alot of time wasted there and not enough time spent on thinking about the safety of her child...

"Mom, I am having an attack, can you come get me?"
"Sure, I'm on my way."
In the meantime, the mother is looking for the car seat to put the baby in. She is searching for it until the grandmother gets there. She is there now, and they panic and decide not to be negligent women and leave a baby home alone, or wait even LONGER for an ambulance, and just left.
We don't know the situation, maybe she didn't want to go in an ambulance? Cost? I really think that arresting these two women is very extreme. Put yourself in the situation. You can't find the car seat and you are beginning to fear for your own life? Would you think that if you tried to get to the hospital and lost your daughter's life on the way that you should be arrested? Would you really sit there and wait for an ambulance after your mother already showed up to take you? Are you really a negligent parent becuae the car seat wasn't available? It's not like she didn't own one. She just couldn't find it.

If I was in her shoes i would of called 911 and then my mother. And there is no way i would put an infant in a car without a carseat. My mom could of stayed there with the child while the ambulance took me to the hospital and i got the needed treatments. I have 3 children ranging from 15 years old to 7 years old and i have NEVER allowed them into a car without a carseat or a seatbelt, no matter what the situation.

And if cost was an issue i can understand that completly. But in an emergency i would not care about the cost i would only care about getting the needed help.

Nobody is saying that what the mother and grandmother did is 100% right. But the reality is that they are already paying a price. They are going to question themselves for the rest of their lives. I am just saying, that arresting these women is unjust. They made a mistake. And it is unfair to say that none of us wouldn't do the same in the situation. The mom could have died on the way to the hospital after waiting that long for the ambulance. None of these possibilities make it right. But arresting them? It's just my opinion, but it seems like the system is just going a little far.

I do have to agree with beekeeper.  I am a parent and nothing means more to me than my children.  I would gladly give my life for thiers.  As I'm sure so would the mom and grandmother in the above story.  As they say hindsight is 20/20.  But what would we benefit from these women going to jail?  What would jail teach them or punish them that they are not doing to themselves now.  It was an emergency and sometimes everyone doesn't do the right thing.  They get scared, they get confused, and not all of us are good under pressure.  It's not like they had the car seat and didn't use it.  As a parent there have been times where my child has rode in another car and we forgot to get the seat out.  I do not think I am the only this has happen to.  I think the parents who don't restrain their children when they go to the store, or some trivial errand are worse than a parent reacting to an emotional emergency.  I too have taken my child to the hospital not in a car seat.  He had gotten bit by a friends chow/wolf mix when he was 4 years old.  We were coming from Green Street, so my son's face is bleeding profusely, screaming in pain and fear.  I jump in the car with my friend that is holding my son and we go to the hospital.  I didn't call 911, my son wasn't in a car seat but being held and comforted during the 3 minute ride to the hospital.  Should I be in jail?  Should the tax payers be paying for my stay because I am a danger to society?  Was I wrong, probably.   Should I be in jail, your call---the tax payers and law makers.  Child endangerment--Willful Child Endangerment--do we know the difference in these two charges.  Neglect?  There is a chance our children will get kidnapped or assaulted by a child molester, or get hit on their bike, or get a snake bite or broken bones playing a school sport----are we endangering our children or neglect, should we all go to jail?  Bakersfield has smog, smog is bad, we let children breathe that, we are endangering them.  Please, this is a very tragic accident---do we remember what an accident means before we start pointing fingers and suing everyone and their mother.  This is all just too much!!!-

 

I agree alot with what both beekeeper and colitas are saying. There alot of questions about the entire story but that will be left to the law to sort out and decide the fate of the mother and grandmother. I just hope that this story will get people to think twice before getting into a car with a child and not secureing them in a car seat or safety belt.

Why didn't they leave the baby with her other child and roommate? The baby died because both were negligent parents! They didn't live in Bear Valley they lived in Metro Bakersfield.

KGET news story posted today!

BAKERSFIELD - Two women -- accused in the no-child-safety-seat car crash death of a 4-month-old -- lied to investigators, according to reports filed in support of criminal charges against them.

Mother and daughter Brenda and Sandy Stockman left Sandy's 6-year-old with Sandy's ''live-in companion'' just before the accident, and could have left the baby, according to the reports. The reports identified the companion as Tanya Roscoe, but don't say what is meant by "live-in companion." The statement by the roommate directly contradicts statements by Brenda, 46, and Sandy, 26, who told officers they had no choice but to take the baby in the car without a safety seat.

The reports accompany misdemeanor charges filed against the two in court this afternoon. At that first hearing, Brenda pleaded not guilty to allegations of vehicular manslaughter and child cruelty. Sandy, accused only of child cruelty, has not been to court yet.

The report says the women were hastily arrested Monday because Brenda was considered a flight risk.

After the accident, the women told a compelling story. Earlier in the day, they said, Kayden's aunt took the baby to a doctor's appointment, and the child's car safety seat was inadvertently left in the aunt's car.

Brenda and Sandy said they were alone with the baby shortly before 8 p.m. when Sandy began having an asthma attack.

Sandy couldn't drive, the women said. They couldn't leave Kayden alone, they said.

So they took off for Memorial Hospital on 34th Street. Brenda drove the Toyota Rav-4 as Sandy held the baby in her lap in the back seat, a single safety belt around them both, the women said.

Brenda was flashing the car's lights and honking her horn as she raced to the hospital. On Chester Avenue, she ran a red light to turn left from southbound Chester onto eastbound Columbus Street, she said. The car was struck by a northbound pickup truck.

Sandy suffered a broken thumb. Brenda was thrown against the windshield and suffered a hairline hip fracture. The baby died at the hospital. The case became a hot topic in Bakersfield. Most callers to talk radio agreed that children need to be in safety seats. But if, for some reason, no seat is available and there is a medical emergency, what's a mother to do?

Now, police say the accident just didn't happen that way. The women could have left the baby with Sandy's roommate, but instead chose to take her on the high-speed run to the hospital, according to reports.