LI Lawmaker Wants Board To Review Suspicious Child Deaths

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Suffolk County legislator wants a panel to look into the cases of children who died suspiciously because of physical trauma.

Legislator Kara Hahn is supporting the creation of a child death review board, which would focus on what could have been done to prevent death in cases when children succumbed to their injuries.

According to Hahn, the point of the review board would not focus on implementing criminal charges or place blame on an agency, WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reported.

Instead, the board would focus on what could have been done better by all parties -- including guardians, school boards and police -- to prevent the death.

"Obviously there's going to be cases where nothing could prevent it, but we just want to do a review and make sure nothing slipped through the cracks."

However, the board will also review cases where the guardian of the child was also charged with a crime.

"This kind of child fatality review system is in place in many other counties, in many other states. and I want to make sure Suffolk County is doing all it can," Hahn said.