In the United States alone, 506 children have died, between 1998 and present, as a result of being left in a hot vehicle. 52% of these children were deemed "forgotten" by their caregivers. (http://www.ggweather.com/heat/)
On May 16, 2013, an 11 month old baby boy was found dead in the family vehicle, after the mother left him there and went inside their home. Six months prior to this incident, the mother was charged with Driving While Intoxicated and Child Neglect. She had been found passed out in the car with the baby beside her, the car was still in drive. She is charged with Aggravated Manslaughter. This took place in Miami, Florida.
On May 10, 2013, a 5 month old baby girl was found dead in a parked car outside of a highschool in El Paso, Texas. The mother is a teacher there. No charges have yet been laid.
On May 8, 2013. a 2 year old boy was found dead in an over heated car in Sweden. He was found 8 hours after his father forgot to drop him off at daycare. He could be charged with Aggravated Manslaughter.
In more than half of the cases of children dying in heated cars, the parents have claimed to have forgotten their child, specifically when doing things outside of their routines. The most common scenario is of a parent who doesn't normally take their child to daycare and forgets the child, goes to work, and only realizes what they've done once it is already too late. As for the other 48%, 29% die from getting into an unattended vehicle and become trapped, 18% are left intentionally and 1% is unknown. This tells me that 81% of these deaths could have easily been avoided.
When we live our lives by a very strict routine, we do things without thinking. We wake up, have a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush our teeth, grab our bag and head out the door. Sometimes we perform all of our daily tasks and hardly have any recollection of doing them because they are such ingrained parts of our daily existence. But lets say tomorrow you wake up and your spouse asks you, amidst morning household chaos, to take your son or daughter to daycare. They even go so far as to strap him or her into their carseat for you and while you finish putting your shoes on, your child falls asleep in their seat. This scenario is all it takes for a child to be forgotten.
So, I ask you, does this make you a bad person? Does forgetting your child in the car make you a child killer? Isn't the heart ache enough punishment to this families? But that said, how do you prove it was an accident?
My heart aches for the families who lost their babies in situations just like these. We, as parents, have to devise our own reminder systems to insure that no baby is ever forgotten.
Published in the Times & Transcript Tuesday, May 28, 2013
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