Another baby dies after being left in a hot car. WHO forgets a child is in a car???

[demtenjeep]

WICHITA, Kan. -
Wichita police say a 10-month-old baby was left alone in a hot car for two to two and a half hours Thursday afternoon. The girl was found dead at around 6:40 pm in the 1500 block of S. Topeka.


http://www.kwch.com/news/local-news/baby-dies-in-hot-car-in-south-wichita/27139842

[kcr]

1. It will keep happening

As long as too many people think that this doesn't happen to normal parents who love their children very much. Treating it like the tragic accident it is and working to prevent it will save lives.

[WinkyDink]

4. Are cars really that big to some drivers that, upon exiting, they are unable to see A CHILD?

[kcr]

8. Rear facing car seats

It has nothing to do with how big the car is.

[Sivafae]

15. and they are in the back seat.

I think that is the biggest contributor to this issue.

[Rex]

5. How do you prevent it from happening?

More commercials on TV?

[Dreamer Tatum]

9. Let their kids hold their cellphones.

Then none of those self-absorbed assholes would ever forget a baby.

[Rex]

17. I just don't understand...I don't have any kids, but still

I can't imagine ever forgetting I have a child in my car!

I am baffled by the parents that forget a living breathing creature inside their car when they go shopping at Wal-Mart or the mall!

[JHB]

39. In most cases, same way you can mess up anything you do routinely

Some interrupta a routine (cell phones look large for this but are not the only thing that can cause a distraction), and you go back to it on what is essentially "autopilot", without noticing you've skipped a step. These stories are replete with cases where the parent think of their kid because the were convinced they already knew where the kid was, with a sitter or someone, just like the hundreds of other times they'd left the kid with them.

One of the posts below links to a must-read article on this subject.

One of the main ways of preventing this is making sure some of the simple ways of preventing this become part of the parenting routine, just like getting down on hands and knees to kid-proof a house. It can happen to "normal" parents, and can be easily prevented, but people who think "I'd never do that" are exactly the ones who won't guard against situations where they're juggling too many balls and drop the most important one in the most horrible way.

[aikoaiko]

42. Combine a quiet baby with sleep deprivation, mental exhaustion, and crushing medical bills....

I took a few steps away from my car once with my boy in the back seat. It scared the hell out of me.

[kcr]

10. Day care busses have alarms preventing this

There is no push to put them in cars because people think it can't happen to them because only monsters who don't care about their kids do this.

[Rex]

18. Well then maybe it is about time to put them in private cars.

For the sake of the children.

[kcr]

20. Yes. But as I say, it won't happen unless we push for it.

Auto manufacturers fought seat belts. If more people realize it is a tragic accident that can happen to anyone, it will be much easier to organize the effort, because it will be a fight.

[Rex]

25. You know that is very sad...that industry would fight a safety feature.

That could save the life of a child or pet.

[kcr]

28. I know

It's still hard to fathom that they fought against mandatory seat belts.

[WinkyDink]

2. I don't know. I don't forget even my coupons. Or umbrella. Or hat. Definitely not purse.

[stevenleser]

3. The comments nearly made me hurl

Apparently the foster parents were two men and several commenters focused on that.

[demtenjeep]

11. I saw that

the ignorance in this world just hurts sometimes.

[Dreamer Tatum]

6. I don't get it. DRIVING in a car in that heat is not always very comfortable

even with the AC on high. When my kids were little and in the
back seat on hot days I worried about them being uncomfortable,
and I HATED how their backs were sweaty when I got them out of
their car seats.

I don't get people who don't think about their tiny children nearly
every moment of the day.

Maybe if they had their cellphones attached to their babies, fewer kids
would die like this.

[gollygee]

22. I can't even count how many times I've forgotten my cell phone in the car

That's flippant, and people do forget their cell phones too.

[Dreamer Tatum]

24. You mean I DIDN'T just solve the problem with my one-liner?

Back to the drawing board, I suppose.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. That makes the 18th child cooked to death in cars so far this year.

I am wondering how many of those are really accidental.
So far only one guy is being investigated for intent.

[In_The_Wind]

13. So sad.

[demtenjeep]

14. one of the foster parents in this case was arrested last night

on FB someone posted his profile. People have no moral compass anymore.

[LiberalLoner]

51. This.

[conservaphobe]

12. People who view their babies as Facebook content generators and fashion accessories. nt

[uppityperson]

52. Seriously?

[REP]

55. Seriously

Not all, but many.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

61. With all the comparisons in this thread to "I've left a package/food/cell....etc"

You're not far off that it's possible some people just view their kid as another inanimate object to tote around with them.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. You'd be surprised. It happens because of the way

people's brains work. Fascinating and sad explanation here (article won a Pulitzer): http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

[gollygee]

21. +1

I don't get the judgment. Forgetfulness doesn't have anything to do with how important the thing you don't want to forget is.

I wish cars had an alarm if the latch system was being used for a car seat. Like if the weight of the baby was still in there when you turned off the car, it would beep, and loudly, until there was no weight where the car seat was latched in.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. People judge because they don't want to believe it could ever happen to them.

"Only negligent, uncaring parents could ever do that; but I am not a negligent, uncaring parent so I could never do something like that and my child will always be safe." However, apart from the occasional situation where someone knowingly leaves the child in a car while they visit a casino or a bar (and that is a negligent parent), the reality is that because of the way the human brain works, and how its ability to process is impaired by distraction and stress, it can happen to anyone. You, me, anyone. All of you who are sputtering with outrage ("I could never do something like that!&quot - guess what. If you have a human brain you could do something like that.

[kcr]

33. That's a big part of it

Also, people are just plain judgey, especially when it comes to parents. Back when my kids were little I posted what I thought was an amusing story about a mess one of them made. I didn't have to wait long to get a finger waging from someone admonishing me for not watching my kids.

[etherealtruth]

27. Thank you for posting this

Horrible things do happen ... and they can happen to parents that are neither horrible people, nor horrible parents

[Luminous Animal]

44. Thank you for posting this. It's a wonderful article and people who claim that such a thing couldn't

happen to them, really need to read it. I remember reading it years ago and you saved me the search.

[femmocrat]

45. Excellent article. Thanks for the link. nt

[Kali]

47. really good article, thank you

[BronxBoy]

48. That is an excellent article...

Thanks for posting it.

[treestar]

59. Excellent article

pointing out many good facts to thing of and the reasons people don't want to believe it would ever happen to them.

[hollysmom]

19. ok. I have a family of distracted people

my very loving mother once left the car seat with the baby in it (people used to take out car seat and baby at the same time, it was a carrier and not a good car seat - old story) and put it on top of car to open the doors with a key - see told you it was an old story. She then got int he car and was going to start it and drive away when someone yelled at her that my brother was on the roof. She adored and doted on my brother making me very jealous There was no intent, there was plenty of love. I was diagnosed with ADHD in my 50's, my mother probably lived with it all her life undiagnosed.

She once went out to pick up dinner from a restaurant and left that on the roof when she drove off, as she did several times with her purse. Since air conditioning was pretty rare and we lived in a safe place, unless it rained,you parked with your windows open for the most part - so if it ever happened, we were safe.

If you have someone who is scattered, and put them under pressure - it could happen. I could see myself doing it - heck, I once parked and locked my car and left it running all day when I caught a bus. it eventually ran out of charge and gas, so when I came back at midnight,I needed a jump and gas. how can you not notice your car is running?

I feel horrible for the person who did it, but mostly I can see it as an accident.

[kcr]

23. My craziest roof of the car story

When I was pregnant I failed the initial blood sugar test so I had further testing that required me to pee in this big jug for a couple of days and save it. Well, I was on my way to the follow up appointment with this big jug-o-urine, and as I pull out of my driveway I hear a thudthudthud from the roof of my car and look back to see it tumbling down the road behind me. Thankfully it didn't burst open.

[HockeyMom]

26. Why am I carrying a Diaper Bag

if baby isn't with me????? When I DIDN'T have baby with me, I did not carry a big diaper bag just for the fun of it.

[gollygee]

30. Did the article say he was carrying a diaper bag?

It could have been in the back seat on the floor of the car in front of the baby seat.

[demtenjeep]

32. good point

it wasn't even at a store. The car with the baby inside was HOME for the evening. For 2 or more hours he didn't remember the child?

[Niceguy1]

34. wow...at home

No excuse...

[Ilsa]

31. People should place purses, briecases,

Cellphones, etc in the back seat with their babies.

[snooper2]

40. Well, he got the five year old out of the back seat---

[Wait Wut]

36. That's such a simple solution!

In today's economy, it's so easy for a mother to stay home with the kids. "...or don't have them", I hope you're writing letters to all those Republicans that are restricting a woman's right to choose whether or not to have them.

What about the men that leave their kids in the car. Should they be staying home with the kids, too? Should everyone quit their jobs as soon as they breed?

[Wait Wut]

41. Self control?

So, you're saying a married couple should not have sex unless they plan on breeding?

I was raised in a home where my mother stayed home. It sucked. She was miserable. Today, that's almost impossible for most people to even consider. The cost of living has skyrocketed while wages have stagnated. There are few families that have the ability to have a stay-at-home-parent.

I was a single mother. My son didn't 'suffer'. I suffered more having a miserable stay-at-home mother than I would have if she had been able to have a career.

[treestar]

57. that would not stop this from happening

at all. The issue was the brain lapse. It has happened to people from all walks of life. Like most Republicans, you are quick to judge and demand that things were ideal in the 50s. It is also sexist to demand this of the mother and not the father.

[Swede Atlanta]

37. I have to say.......................

I sometimes get into my car in the morning and have every intention of stopping at the UPS store, for example, to ship that package and forget. I have the radio on and I am settle into "routine" mode where I always drive the same way, etc.

But if a parent is operating in "routine" mode I would expect that would mean they are driving the child to daycare or taking the child with them to onsite daycare.

It is a tragedy. Whatever parents can do from leaving their briefcase, cell phone, etc. next to the child, etc. What about setting an alarm on your phone to go off 20 minutes after you expect to arrive at the office?

It seems like we should have enough technology out there to help prevent this.

[demtenjeep]

43. this incident happened at home. The car was parked infront of the home for more than 2 hours

he didn't realize he was home but the child wasn't

[LLD]

46. It's unbelievable.

I've been thinking of how cars could be safer when the heat rises in vehicles.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

49. everybody. in the sense that research shows no similarities between people who forget

kids in a car.

[unblock]

50. if you've ever forgetten *anything*, i.e., if you're human, it could happen to you.

horrible as it is, that is the reality and the conclusion of research into this problem.

rear-facing child seats have made the problem markedly worse, but it existed even before then.

combine insufficient sleep (almost universal given our lifestyle and especially for parents of kids who fit in car seats) with a bit of stress and a slight interruption from routine, you can easily forget anything, even something as precious as a child, especially if it's a normally noisy kid who happened to fall asleep this time.

there are a number of precautions you can take to reduce the likelihood of such a tragedy but people are fallible and nothing is foolproof.

among the tricks are to put a shoe or purse or cellphone or something otherwise essential in the back seat with the child either always or at least any time you put a child in the car, so that there's something to remind you to go to the back seat when you leave the car.

another is to put a stuffed animal in front passenger seat when the kid is in the back seat, again to remind you to check the back.

another is to simply *always* check the back seat, even if you "know" there's no one there.



other solutions may come down the pike, involving sensors and such, weight can be tricky, so i think the best sensor would be if the child seat is buckled it should assume there's a child there and sound an alarm when a car door opens or when the engine stops.

[treestar]

58. Yes, the article above pointed out it has become more common

since it was discovered air bags are more dangerous and kids should be in the back seat.

Good idea about always checking the back seat regardless, before leaving the car. That could be ingrained as a habit and come from the basal ganglia that article says takes over.

[Warpy]

53. A parent stumbling through life, hallucinating from sleep deprivation?

Sleep deprived parents have also driven away with the kid in the car seat on top of the car.

[REP]

56. I've actually been so sleep deprived I hallucinated and blacked out without warning

I had/have a severe sleep disorder that went undiagnosed and untreated for years. Not only did I not sleep, I didn't breathe and my oxygen saturation was dangerously low. I wasn't just not sleeping well; I didn't get past Stage 2 sleep for years.

Never forgot anything in my car. I just can't imagine leaving a living, stinky person in my car without noticing.

[benld74]

54. Prayers to the family and the child,,,,,