<p>I don’t necessarily think the number of these incidences are more now than 20 years ago, we are just more aware due to the media. That and people are more mobile; it was less common 40 years ago to be a two-car family. </p>
<p>Or drop your kid off at daycare while mom stayed home alone. That didn’t happen. But I don’t think anyone in this horrible case forgot about the baby at all, So yeah.</p>
<p>Airbags didn’t exist 40 years ago so it was more common to put kids in the front seat. Even 20 years ago they were new and people driving older cars might not have them. Rear facing and being in the back sets make it more likely. </p>
<p>And the coverage of these things is definitely making them seem more common. </p>
<p>@emeraldkity4, has it been established that the daycare was in the opposite direction?? That is actually an extremely good observation. So he really “forgot” right after he buckled Cooper in and pointed the car towards his place of employment. Obviously impossible to do. </p>
<p>In thinking back to my childhood, if somebody had left a baby in a hot car, resulting in its death, in my hometown, I very much doubt if it would have been news anywhere except in the local paper. It certainly would not have been a story on national TV.</p>
<p>^^^^^
In our neighborhood, what people brought to the church picnic was in the newspaper, so I would expect the sudden death of a child, would warrant noticing.</p>
<p>The drive from the Chick-fil-A to Harris’ office took less than three minutes when WXIA drove the route on Wednesday. Harris told police that was enough time for him to forget his son was in the backseat.
Less than three minutes?
Does this guy even have a frontal lobe?</p>
<p>*At 4:16 that afternoon Harris left work for the day and traveled north on Cumberland Parkway toward the Akers Mill shopping center, instead of south toward his son’s daycare. Police said he pulled over into the shopping center when he realized his son was incapacitated.
*
He couldn’t remember his son was in the car, even though he just had breakfast with him less than three minutes before, but he noticed his body while he was driving?
How stupid does he think everyone else is?</p>
<p><a href=“Supporters abandon dad charged in tot's hot-car death”>http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/27/boy-dies-hot-car-father-charged/11472849/</a></p>
<p>Even when my oldest was little, car seats were a pretty new thing, and while the NICU staff would not release her to us until we could show them we knew how to strap her in it, my inlaws refused to use it, so we couldn’t leave either of the kids with them. ( which perhaps was their intent)
While car seats did take slightly longer to strap kids in and get them out of, at least they kept them from climbing all over the seats.( but not from kicking the back of them)</p>
<p>Remember when the front bench seats of cars went forward when you pushed on them?
I remember sitting in the front seat of my parents 1955 Chevy Bel air with a stack of library books. I may have even been sitting on the library books, I was about 2. Although the car was parked, I slipped forward and split my eyebrow open on the steering wheel. ( I was a klutzy toddler, I also fell off a swing & my top teeth went through my bottom lip. I still have the scars)
I imagine I was in the front seat, as I don’t think the back seat had safety belts.
But we soon sold it & bought a Volkswagen, which did have seat belts in the back.
My parents, especially my dad, were ultra safety conscious. We never had a station wagon with a bunch of kids in the back, we always had Volkswagens with seat belts after the Chevy.
Although when I was in high school, I do remember having to sit in the space behind the back seat, of a friends car, because I didn’t want to sit on anyones lap. ( I was always the smallest, so I just squeezed in whatever space was left.)</p>
<p>But from the Chick Filet where they had breakfast - was the daycare in the same direction as his office?</p>
<p>WOW. Has anyone noticed we now have post numbers (or am I the last to realize it)? And also, the big green check marks on the main page which designate threads to which you’ve posted?</p>
<p>About time!</p>
<p>Post numbers are back! When did this happen???</p>
<p>I am pretty sure the daycare center is on the HD property <a href=“Daycare center coming to Home Depot headquarters | Smyrna, GA Patch”>Daycare center coming to Home Depot headquarters | Smyrna, GA Patch;
<p>I left my daughter’s best friend behind at a snow tubing park. My daughter was injured while tubing, so I just jumped in the car with her to get her to a quick care place. Then I rode with her to the hospital in an ambulance. Halfway there, I remembered her friend! I had to call her mom. So embarrassing. She was very gracious, but she had to drive a long way to pick up the girl, who was about 10 years old, I believe. </p>
<p>There are more than they were 20 years ago but they have remained steady on yearly average since then. One of the factors is the rear placement of the child seat. Another, I am guessing is that twenty years ago, less women worked full time and there was less necessity for dropping a child at day care. Now, in most families, both parents work, there is a morning routine that includes bringing children to caretakers, parents are distracted by work demands, cell phones, etc.</p>
<p>I am wondering why Harris felt the need to “discover” the body after he drove away from work. Why not have his dramatic moment in the parking lot at work? Trying to get inside this guy’s head.</p>
<p>^^^Maybe because nobody was leaving work yet and he needed an audience. This guy pulled in at 9:30 in the morning, took a long lunch, and left at 4:15. I’ve worked 30 years and never had those cushy hours!</p>
<p>Here’s a map
<a href=“Justin Ross Harris -- Route - Google My Maps”>Justin Ross Harris -- Route - Google My Maps;
you need to zoom in but from Chick-fil-a you go one way to his office and another to the day care so he has to “forget” just as he pulled away from from Chick-fil-a! The turn to the day care would have been moments after he strapped the child in.</p>
<p>^^ “an audience” Indeed.</p>
<p>I saw the testimony of one member of that audience, a man who showed more emotion than either of the parents. The “audience” was traumatized. Imagine being a witness to the “discovery”.</p>
<p>No. I cannot even imagine this!</p>
<p>Compare this couple’s emotionless reaction to the reactions of the parents described in the linked article that won the 2010 Pulitzer…</p>
<p>I can’t make sense of that map. 
</p>
<p>^^^ you have to zoom in
The Day Care is on Paces Ferry Road the other side of the other side of 285 from Chick-fil-a.The Chick-fil-a is near the intersection of Paces Ferry Road and Cumberland Pkwy there is a Star Bucks on the corner and Chick-fil-a is the next build from the intersection. To go to the day care, you exist out of the parking lot onto Cumberland and make a left turn onto Paces Ferry road. The distance to this turn is only the distance of Chick-fil-a parking lot plus the Starbucks so almost <em>immediately</em> after exiting the the Chick-fil-a. To go to his work he would continue going straight on Cumberland park way.</p>
<p>BB, yes very odd. Not everyone reacts the same to a horrific tragedy like losing your only child as a toddler. The fact that they BOTH reacted in the same unaffected manner is a huge red flag for me. </p>