Now they will want Child Proof washing machines

4-Year-Old Girl Killed in Washing Machine
Wednesday, February 04, 2009


Print ShareThisMISSION VIEJO, Calif. — A 4-year-old girl in Southern California has died after she climbed into a washing machine that began tumbling when her toddler brother hit its simple push-button start.

Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said Kayley Ishii apparently climbed into the front-loading washer Monday afternoon. Her 15-month-old brother either bumped or pushed the button to start the machine.

Amormino said the machine's controls were only 20 inches from the floor and the start switch was a simple push button. The girl was in the water-filled, tumbling machine for at least two minutes before her mother found her.

An autopsy Tuesday found Kayley died of blunt force trauma and the death was ruled accidental

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Exactly, a parent should think of it's CHYYYLLLLLDDDDSSSS SAFETY FIRRRSSSTTTT, right?

After all, everybody else is supposed to.

I bet that this happened at a laundry mat. Either way though, why was it half filled yet off and WHY was a 15 month old toddling around it unsupervised anyway? If it had already began "tumbling" then it was likely on the spin cycle and full of clothes, unless it was broken in which case it should have been disconnected so the kyds couldn't get at it. Also, WHY would a 4 y/o climb into a washing machine, especially when it had clothes and water in it? It NEVER crossed my mind to climb into a washer or dryer when I was a kyd and with the refrigerator kiddie death scares of the 1960's, my mother had me too damned afraid to crawl into ANYTHING like that.

I'm in a strange mood right now, I find this story quite funny. And the kids name is priceless.

Now to be completely tasteless... They should bury her in a little teeny washer-shaped coffin. HAH!

I thought it was funny too.....

Where the hell does someone find a front loading washer with the buttons 20 inches off the floor? And why the hell would any company make a washer configured like that? I've never seen such a thing. I mean, who is going to want to kneel down on the floor to turn on a washer?

"It truly is the one commonality that every designation of humans you can think of has, there's at least one asshole."
--Me

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Feh
Where the hell does someone find a front loading washer with the buttons 20 inches off the floor? And why the hell would any company make a washer configured like that? I've never seen such a thing. I mean, who is going to want to kneel down on the floor to turn on a washer?

I was wondering the same thing, but I haven't been in the market for a washer in a while so I thought that maybe it was some new thing. I would BET that it was supposed to be the top part of one of those washer-dryer stackem up space saving combos, but was being used improperly because otherwise it's very design doesn't make any sense.

Maybe to accomodate dwarfs and midgets???

two cents ¢¢

CERTIFIED HOSEHEAD!!!

people (especially women) do not give ONE DAMN about what they inflict on children and I defy anyone to prove me wrong

Dysfunctional relationships almost always have a child. The more dysfunctional, the more children.

The selfish wants of adults outweigh the needs of the child.

Some mistakes cannot be fixed, but some mistakes can be 'fixed'.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. Leo J. Burke

Adoption agencies have strict criteria (usually). Breeders, whose combined IQ's would barely hit triple digits, have none.

Some months back, we discussed here a tragic case in western Virginia in which an adolescent boy put his young sister in a laundromat front-loading machine, where she drowned after the machine went into operation. This new incident reminds me a lot of that old one. I wonder here, as many of us did with the other case, where moo was and whether she played some role in the festivities to be able to get rid of an unwanted kyd...

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Feh
Where the hell does someone find a front loading washer with the buttons 20 inches off the floor? And why the hell would any company make a washer configured like that? I've never seen such a thing. I mean, who is going to want to kneel down on the floor to turn on a washer?

I own a front loading washer and dryer, they are made to be set upon the base unit that is sold seperate. The base unit is a storage cabinet, and it makes the unit set up to an acceptable level. I love mine, they use less water, front load and hold way more than the old top load. without the base unit, they are not good machines, they sit too clow to the ground.

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Perhaps I'm too cynical, but this story smells fishy to me.

I assume it was in a home, not a laundromat...laundromats typically don't start till you put in the coins in my experience. I just measured 20 inches with my ruler. It comes to just the top of my knee. I can't think of any washer I've seen with the controls weirdly down there. What did the sheriff's spokesman mean by saying that?

Also, my own washer makes noise. It's clearly audible all over the house. Did Mom not hear it start up, think "OH NO!" and tear over to the washer?

Also, how did anyone know it was "at least two minutes"? My own washer does not have a timer to show you how far into the cycle it is. All I know about it is that it's about 10 minutes to fill, then churns around for a while, then churns slower, then rinses and spins. About 35 minutes all in all. I know more up-to-date washers have way more bells and whistles, though.

One more: assuming the washer was empty, having therefore enough room for the kid to crawl in, isn't there an initial water-filling phase before the churning action? I'm sure that takes more then 2 minutes.

Just strikes me as odd.

Did anyone think to add fabric softener??

two cents ¢¢

CERTIFIED HOSEHEAD!!!

people (especially women) do not give ONE DAMN about what they inflict on children and I defy anyone to prove me wrong

Dysfunctional relationships almost always have a child. The more dysfunctional, the more children.

The selfish wants of adults outweigh the needs of the child.

Some mistakes cannot be fixed, but some mistakes can be 'fixed'.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. Leo J. Burke

Adoption agencies have strict criteria (usually). Breeders, whose combined IQ's would barely hit triple digits, have none.

This story smells to high heaven of moomie murder. Again.

I have a front loader washing machine. Those doors have a waterproof and pressure proof seal on them, for obvious reasons. Do you know how many pounds of pressure it takes --and wrist strength --to close the front door on it secure enough so that the thing will start when the right buttons are pushed? Way beyond that of a 15 month old. Those doors do not just 'click' shut, nor do they 'bump' shut. And no, they cannot be pulled closed from the inside.

Nice one, mooface, you got 'em all fooled -- so far.

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"The death of creativity is a pram in the hallway"
- Cyril Connolly

The truth will come out "in the wash"!


Hardy-har-har

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"I have learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is easy and fun as hell"

:eatu

They put too much spin on it, don'tcha think? Hoho.

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"The death of creativity is a pram in the hallway"
- Cyril Connolly

Yea, the whole thing sounds fishy to me.

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Amethyst
They put too much spin on it, don'tcha think? Hoho.

At least perhaps this story will serve as a warning and detergent to others.

This story is soap pitiful, but I think the truth will eventually bubble up.

I think some people might already have addressed this, but there are some erroneous assumptions about how these washers operate in this passage.

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kidlesskim
I bet that this happened at a laundry mat. Either way though, why was it half filled yet off and WHY was a 15 month old toddling around it unsupervised anyway? If it had already began "tumbling" then it was likely on the spin cycle and full of clothes.

Because:

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Amethyst
This story smells to high heaven of moomie murder. Again.

I have a front loader washing machine. Those doors have a waterproof and pressure proof seal on them, for obvious reasons. Do you know how many pounds of pressure it takes --and wrist strength --to close the front door on it secure enough so that the thing will start when the right buttons are pushed? Way beyond that of a 15 month old. Those doors do not just 'click' shut, nor do they 'bump' shut. And no, they cannot be pulled closed from the inside.

Nice one, mooface, you got 'em all fooled -- so far.

And, at the laundrymat, the washer starts after you push the quarters in - the quarter-pusher is at the top of the machine, it usually makes you put in a LOT of them because these are the "large capacity" machines at the 'mat. The quarter-pusher WILL NOT go in if the door to the machine is not REALLY CLOSED, and Amethyst is 100% correct that these doors are a PAIN IN THE ASS to close. It is the nature of their operation because of the high centrifugal forces that take place during the spin cycle, so the door doesn't fly open. But, it does "tumble" as part of the wash cycle. It's just a bit slower than the tumbling of a regular clothes dryer. The "Spin" cycle is WICKED fast, like a laboratory centrifuge. These washing machines also "tumble" while filling with water. So, the machine would not have had to have been full of clothes and water, and just about to enter the spin cycle, for this to have taken place. It is entirely realistic that the machine was idle and empty when the child(ren) encountered it.


What Amethyst said about those doors, though, is the real root of the mystery. I have not seen EVERY model of this style of washer that is manufactured, but I have used them at the 'mat and I once had one like that at an apartment I lived in, and you REALLY have to FORCE the door shut. There's like a little handle that you have to grab and PUSH and TWIST, and there is usually a safety thing that won't allow you to turn the cycle on until it is absolutely closed.

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"I have learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is easy and fun as hell"

:eatu