Amid summer heat and swim season, Northwestern District Attorney launches child safety campaign

NORTHAMPTON – Almost every child fatality that takes place within the jurisdiction of the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office receives a careful review by a team of people seeking to determine if it could have been prevented.

The Northwestern District Attorney’s Child Fatality Review Team meets quarterly to evaluate cases with an eye toward changing policies and practices or educating the public as needed in an effort to prevent child deaths. This month, the team launches a four-part child safety campaign, just in time for a holiday weekend typically centered on water fun, and amid a heat wave creating its own hidden dangers for children. The campaign is focused on water safety, car safety particularly relating to summer heat, window safety and infant sleeping safety.

“At our most recent Child Fatality Review Team meeting in May, we again discussed the dangers posed to children in the summer months, particularly around pools and open bodies of water. We know water and heat sometimes intersect in dangerous ways for children and we want to remind people to be vigilant,” said Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Linda Pisano, chief of the child abuse unit for the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office. “There have been instances of children drowning in pools because locks failed or a gate was left open. We feel an obligation to raise awareness about these dangers that can lead to needless tragedies.”

Child Fatality Review Teams, mandated by state law, fall to local District Attorney’s offices to assemble a multidisciplinary group tasked with studying infant and child deaths to determine if they were preventable and then to issue recommendations for change.

“It’s really proactive,” said Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan. “It’s not punitive. We meet to talk candidly about what could have been done to change conditions if a death was preventable. We feel that could save young lives in the future.”

Members of the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office Child Fatality Review Team include prosecutors, municipal police officers, state troopers, health care providers, including emergency services workers, and people from the state Department of Children and Families and Department of Public Health.

“As important as it is, water safety is just one area of prevention. We also need to educate parents and caregivers -- and new generations of parents and caregivers -- about other hidden dangers, including the inside of cars in the summer, unsafe infant sleeping positions and the risks windows can pose to toddlers,” said Sullivan. “There are many things over which we have no control, so it’s crucial we take the actions we can to reduce risks of preventable child fatalities.”

The PSA campaign, “Keeping infants and children safe must be our top priority,” offers tips for how to work towards safer practices in the areas of water risks, infant sleeping, open windows and within cars, particularly in the summer. Posters available for downloading can be found under the child abuse tab on this website. Among the recommendations are:

• Sleep Safe:  always place babies on their back to sleep and never co-sleep
• Window Safe: open windows from the top down and use stops to keep windows from opening more than four inches;
• Car Safe: Actively use prompts like placing a bag or lunch in the backseat where an infant is buckled in to prevent accidentally leaving an infant in a car;
• Water Safe: Test locks on pool fencing regularly, install pool drain covers and be wary of risks beneath the surface of natural bodies of water.