<p>I think part of the problem is that this type of accident, although horrible, is still extremely rare. That makes it less likely that people will take active steps to prevent it. There are probably many, many times as many parents who endanger their kids by not putting them in car seats or seat belts in the first place.</p>
<p>On average 35 children each year die from it so I suppose that it is rare. But it is also preventable and it is particularly horrific both in the manner of death and in the fact that the parent will live with this for the rest of his or her life.</p>
<p>I read that today and wondered to myself: how many babies die a year because they are in a car seat in the front seat? And how many die a year being left in the car? I’ve never been comfortable with the thought of a baby in the back seat facing the rear. What if they choke? Or stop breathing, or even just get overheated and you can’t see?</p>
<p>This is the saddest story I’ve heard in a long time. I have a grandchild about this age and this just breaks my heart.</p>
<p>When my kids were in rear facing car seats we had a mirror on the back seat so I could see them. Everyone I knew with kids in rear facing car seats did this. The car seat mirror was less than $20. If these parents were so concerned about the possibility of leaving a child in the car that they would research how long it takes a child to die, you’d think they’d have found some of the very simple precautions mentioned in this thread and implemented them. </p>
<p>
This is my point as well, and we can see it clearly in the posts here. If parents internalized the reality that it COULD happen to them, they might be more likely to take preventative measures. When S was small I was phobic about all these types of things. In regard to the car, I made it a habit to scan the interior of the car every single time I got out, whether a kid was with me or not. It’s not all that hard to make something a habit. We put on our seat belts, lock the car when we leave it, we don’t even think about these things mostly. If parents started when they were pregnant, by the time the kid was actually in a car seat it would be automatic to look over the car every time they got out of it. </p>
<p>I also think if there are 2 parents available then a system where one always texts the other to ask or tell them about the drop off (even “JR launched”) would reduce the chance of forgetting because they would BOTH have to forget on the same day. With most of us carrying cell phones where you can set a reminder to alarm you every day at a certain time, why not “baby to day care?” reminders? We should be making our technology do more for us than allow us to display our private parts to underage girls :(.</p>
<p>@rebeccar, thank you for the article. Really stunning, in many ways.</p>
<p>Yes, the article is haunting. Before reading it, I would not have thought it possible that I could ever forget a child in the car. I was the world’s most anxious mother, having had DS1 after 9 years of infertility, 10 IVF attempts, and 4 miscarriages (of IVF pregnancies). I worried about absolutely everything. But forgetting him in the car never occurred to me as a possibility. Now, I can see how it could happen.</p>
<p>But unless all new parents are required to read the article, I don’t see most of them taking the recommended precautions. </p>
<p>The parents profiled in the article are punishing themselves more than the state could ever punish this father.</p>
<p>I was never left in the car as far as I am aware, but I was left alone at home by accident when I was about 5. There were four kids in the family plus guests on the way to some event, and each parent thought the other had gotten me. My mom rushed home in a panic, ready to comfort a lonely, crying child. I was happily watching TV, feeling very grown up and enjoying the privacy, and asked if I could finish my show before we headed back out to the event.</p>
<p>Hanna, were you by any chance the inspiration for the movie Home Alone?</p>
<p>I know devoted parents who have accidentally left their children behind in stores, at highway rest stops, and forgotten to pick them up from after school activities for hours. Luckily, no one ever forgot their child in a hot car, that I know of.</p>
<p>Hanna Home Alone would have been a very short and boring movie; I think I was only by myself for about 20 minutes.</p>
<p>Sylvan, that’s an excellent idea. Why not an Ap? Just set it to alarm you every day at the same time. I have an ap that reminds me to take my medication every day. It’s no different.</p>
<p>So, I’d be surprised if anyone who has raised a couple of kids doesn’t have a few close call stories they could tell. But, these parents ooze guilty. Both of them, imho.</p>
<p>H was left in an airport once when he was young. One of his brothers left his hat in a restaurant and H volunteered to go back and get it. When he got back to the gate, the plane had left the gate with H’s mother and two younger brothers in it. He cried enough and raised enough of a tantrum that they brought the plane back to the gate. When he told me this story, both D1 and I asked, “Who leaves a kid behind in an airport?” </p>
<p>@Teriwtt your poor H! So what did they think when they boarded and his seat was empty? </p>
<p>^^^
Sounds like Home Alone!
My mother once was on the middle of the 520 bridge before she remembered she had left her youngest child at her mother in laws.</p>
<p>I can understand leaving a child at the sitters, especially if you don’t usually take them there.
But not knowing a child is in your car, especially when you placed them there, seems bizarre.
Don’t they fire school bus drivers if they don’t notice they left a kid on the bus?
I couldn’t forget a kid was in the car, anymore than I wouldn’t realize they were in the house.</p>
<p>One of the biggest slip ups this guy did was not head towards the day care when he left work.</p>
<p>I have no idea. Honestly, I never heard this story until earlier this year, over 40 years since it happened. H was trying to explain to D1 and me why he has such a compulsion about being at the airport very, very early prior to flights, and used this story as his excuse. Perhaps there being four people traveling (H, his mom, and two siblings), their seats weren’t all together, and she assumed he made it back on the plane after going back to the restaurant. I’m pretty sure he was under ten years old, though, and again, who leaves their kid behind in an airport?</p>
<p>I did feel kind of bad for him, though, because last month, he did actually miss a 6AM flight because the security line at O’Hare was so long. D1 and I again wondered, if you realize you’re going to cut it that close due to security (he was at the airport more than an hour before his flight), why not go up to someone in TSA, show them your ticket and explain the situation so they might let you through? Unfortunately, when he missed that flight, the airlines automatically canceled his return flight home the next day, which he didn’t realize until the next morning. </p>
<p>
Ok. Let’s go with this. But why have these incidents been on the rise? What’s different now than say 20 years ago, when this rarely happened, or 40 years ago, when we never heard of this?</p>
<p>The wife was scheduled to pick the kid up–that wasn’t a slip up. He was supposed to go to a movie with friends. I read that he told them he might be late. That could be a slip up. Based on when he left work he should have had plenty if time to get to the theater. </p>
<p>
For one thing, the U.S. population has nearly doubled in 40 years. Second, 40 years ago we didn’t hear about every tragedy that occurred anywhere in the country (and we certainly didn’t hear about it in such detail, or for day after day after day.) Finally, people may drive more with kids in the car, and especially in rear-facing car seats.</p>