A friend was going to drop off a package at UPS, when his kid fell asleep in the car on the way. Although there are parking spaces 10 feet from the UPS store (which has huge glass windows, so he could have seen the kid the whole time), he chose not to go inside.
He had googled and discovered that it is illegal to leave a child unattended in a car in CA for any period of time. It would have taken 30 seconds in the store to drop off the package. But my buddy wanted to be law-abiding, so he waited until the kid woke up before going in to drop off the package.
When I looked it up I saw that it's an infraction (not a misdemeanor or felony), and the penalty is only $100. [1] But it could lead to CPS being called, which is a much, much bigger deal.
So why not make the law something reasonable, related to how long the child is actually left in the vehicle, and whether the parent is creating a risk to the life of the child (based on temperature, for example)? It seems like the people who are likely to be influenced by this law are those who are sensitive/compliant enough to even know it exists, and people who would consider leaving their kids in the car and forgetting for 15 minutes would be completely unaffected.
He had googled and discovered that it is illegal to leave a child unattended in a car in CA for any period of time. It would have taken 30 seconds in the store to drop off the package. But my buddy wanted to be law-abiding, so he waited until the kid woke up before going in to drop off the package.
When I looked it up I saw that it's an infraction (not a misdemeanor or felony), and the penalty is only $100. [1] But it could lead to CPS being called, which is a much, much bigger deal.
1: https://www.wklaw.com/charges-for-leaving-your-child-in-a-ca...