Mother Leaves Baby at Scene of Accident: Seeks Medical Attention for Herself
Emergency workers called to the scene of a single-vehicle car accident in Kaohsiung City this morning were shocked to find a 2 month-old baby in a baby carrier/safety seat on the sidewalk, and no sign of the mother or other occupants of the vehicle.
The baby was conscious and had no visible trauma, however, at the after an examination at the hospital, it was found that the infant had suffered an intracranial hemorrhage. The baby was later reported to be in a coma and in a critical condition.
Reports in various Chinese language media sources conflicted with each other and changed rapidly during the day. An initial report on the Liberty Times Network said the mother had gone off to chase her dog, which ran off after the accident. LTN quickly pulled a video report posted to Youtube, and wrote a corrective article saying that what had happened was unclear.
A clearer picture emerged in the evening after the woman with the dogs was interrogated, surveillance camera footage was released, the mother of the baby was found by police and taken in for questioning, and a man was arrested on drug possession charges.
After driving to Kaohsiung from Taichung, Ms. Lin, 32, had crashed her car into a utility pole in Qiaotou District at around 4:00am. Surveillance camera footage shows that Lin stepped out of her car and removed the baby in the combined carrier/safety seat. Lin placed the baby carrier down behind the car’s right-hand rear wheel. Lin then opened the passenger side front door and let her friend Ms Lu and Lu’s two white miniature dogs out of the car.
Lu then appears to be taking pictures of one dog with her cellphone while Lin takes the baby carrier across the sidewalk. Lin is holding the carrier almost vertically, causing the baby to fall out of the carrier and onto the pavement. Lin then picks the 2 month-old baby boy up by his arms to comfort him.
Ms Lin was suffering discomfort to her chest due to the airbag deploying. Lin asked Lu to take care of the baby while she called a friend to help her get medical treatment.
After Lin left in her friend’s car, Lu left the scene of the accident with her two dogs. Early media reports mistakenly identified her as the mother. Lu claims that she thought the baby was okay, so left to seek help. According to TVBS, Lu was found by police 1km away. Lu was slightly injured and admitted to being a passenger in the car.
Police later today found Lin in Kaohsiung Veteran’s Hospital and took her in for questioning at around 5:30pm. The friend who took her to the hospital was found to be in possession of 15 grams of an unspecified drug. Liu claimed the drugs were not his, but had fallen out of the baby carriage. According to Now News, all three adults involved in the case have previous drug convictions.
Related Video
Taiwan English News is an independent publication with no corporate funding. If you found this article informative, and would like to support my work, please buy me a coffee or support me on Patreon. Subscribe to Taiwan English News for free to receive the latest news via email. Advertising queries are welcome. Share, like, comment below.
What good is a safety seat if neither the child nor the seat is secured? This is the norm in Taiwan, second only to scooting around with an infant swaddled to your chest. This has to stop.