Four day care workers were sentenced to imprisonment Tuesday, on charges of causing death by negligence in the death of a 4-year-old girl in July, in Gyeonggi province.

The child was found dead in the day care center’s bus on July 17 after being left inside alone for several hours in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi province. Autopsy results showed the girl died of a heat exhaustion. 

Two teachers in charge, were sentenced to prison terms of 1 1/2 years and one year. The bus driver was also sentenced to a year in prison and the principal of the day care center was given a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.

The local court issued prison sentences, despite the petition filed by the victim’s parents for forgiveness, emphasizing the fact that this incident had a great impact on society.

“It was preventable if any of defendants conducted their duties properly to check the enrollment of a child,” said the court.

Meanwhile, it has since become mandatory for the day care centers to apply a “sleeping child check” system to prevent similar, in accordance with an amendment to the Road Traffic Act that was applied on Oct. 16 by the Korean National Police Agency.

(kairos07@heraldcorp.com)