Daycare Center Left 4-Year-Old Child in a Van for Over an Hour

Humes J. “Tripp” Franklin, III and Alexandra E. Humphreys Received a $115,000.00 Settlement for Client

This case arose from injuries suffered by a 4-year-old child while trapped in a van outside of her daycare center for over 90 minutes. In January 2020, the four-year-old child was getting picked up from school and vanned to a daycare center by the daycare center’s employees. The daycare center’s staff failed to make sure that each and every child was unloaded from the company van upon arrival. Specifically, when the van arrived at the daycare center, the employees were supposed to conduct a head count and walk around the vehicle in order to confirm that no children were left in the van. Unfortunately, on the day of the incident, the employees failed to perform these tasks. As a result, the 4-year-old child remained trapped inside the van while staff led the rest of the group inside. It was not until 85 minutes later, when the child’s mother arrived to pick her child up, that the daycare center first became aware that the child was missing. For another 13 minutes, the daycare center staff failed to account for the 4-year-old child’s location. It was only after another daycare attendee was heard stating that the 4-year-old was in the van that the 4-year-old was actually found. When the child was removed from the van, the child was red in the face, crying, and their clothes were soiled. Over 90 minutes elapsed between the child being left in the van and their discovery. During that time, the child had no food, no water, no access to a bathroom, and no access to their asthma medication. As a result of this incident, the child was diagnosed with PTSD and manifested dramatic behavioral changes. These behavioral changes included refusing to sleep in their bed alone, following adults when they leave the room so as not to be left alone, ruminations concerning the experience, excessively apologizing, and loud breakdowns in response to events that triggered the experience of being entrapped.