Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

Child left unattended in car

Long story short...

My local police want to cite my wife for leaving our 6yr old in the car while she ran into wawa for a coffee. I researched PA law and found:

� 3701.1. Leaving an unattended child in a motor vehicle.

(a) General rule.--A person driving or in charge of a motor

vehicle may not permit a child under six years of age to remain

unattended in the vehicle when the motor vehicle is out of the

person's sight and under circumstances which endanger the

health, safety or welfare of the child.

(a.1) Applicability.--This section shall apply to the

highways and trafficways of this Commonwealth and, for the

purposes of this section only, the term ''trafficways'' shall

include, but not be limited to, parking lots.

(b) Penalty.--A person who violates this section commits a

summary offense. It is a separate offense for each child left

unattended.

This law doesn't seem to apply since my son is 6 and the law states that the child must be under 6. It looks like the officer does not have a basis to charge her with this. Do I have a case here?


Asked on 11/19/07, 5:25 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Gibson John W. Gibson, Esquire

Re: Child left unattended in car

It sounds to me like you have a defense. If you are talking about a case against the officer, most likely a Judge would dismiss it before you got very far.

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Answered on 11/30/07, 2:02 pm


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