AUDIO: Mass. dad forgets baby in SUV, calls 911 from train
Published 4:31 pm Thursday, May 14, 2015
A Massachusetts father’s morning commute turned frantic Wednesday morning, forcing him to call 911 once he realized that he left his 1-year-old child in the back seat of his parked SUV prior to boarding a train to work.
Described in a statement as “one of the worst days of my life,” the father, according to ABC News, had departed the area’s North Quincy Station on a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) train en route to work when he realized he had left his young daughter in the SUV parked in the station’s parking lot.
“I left my 1-year-old baby in my SUV by accident this morning at North Quincy Station,” the man says to a 911 dispatcher in audio of the call via CBS Boston around 8:20a.m. While calling for help, the man made his way back to the station via the Red Line train route.
Soon after the father’s call for help, the child was found safe in the SUV after police raced to the station’s parking lot and found the vehicle, as reported by Oklahoma’s News 9.
According to the father, the infant had fallen asleep in the carseat, causing him to go into “auto pilot” and forget to drop the child off at an area in-home daycare center.
“The baby was in good shape,” Quincy Police Captain John Duggan told an area news radio station. “We were able to open the door and get the baby out.”
While the child was uninjured and the father was not charged by authorities, the father did release the following statement later Wednesday to local media following the ordeal:
My family and I are very relieved but still shook up.
This morning we had a very close call. Like many parents, I have a very repetitive morning procedure that involves two day care drop offs and a Red Line ride. After dropping off my older child at school, I neglected to drop off my infant at the in-home daycare we use and she was left in the car at an MBTA train station in Quincy. The baby had fallen asleep in the child seat and I went into auto pilot. I had what I thought was a safe-guard procedure against this in place that I neglected to use today. Obviously, we will be doing more to prevent this going forward.
I had realized just before I arrived at work in Cambridge what I had done and rushed back to the T. Knowing that too much time had already elapsed, I called the police to ensure the baby’s safety. While this was one of the worst days of my life, I know that we were also very fortunate as it was a mild temperature day and I had come to my senses before too long.
I’d like to thank the Quincy and Transit police departments as well as the responding EMTs for taking good care of my little one while I rushed back. She is safe and happy today.