Children dying in cars due to heat

[Soubriquet]

I know people say accidents happen, but I genuinely can’t understand how people leave their kids in the car and forget about them.

I mean, even when I was so exhausted I forgot my own name, I still had my children in my forefront of my mind.

It’s a heartbreakingly sad and I do feel sorry for the parents when they discover they left their kids in the car but I still don’t understand how.

Horrific, and the parent will be punished forever by knowing they caused their child's death. Imagine living with that, and the other parent having to deal with that too. I would consider it an accident. No additional punishment needed.

Absolutely understand how it can happen and it’s so scary.

The first time i took DS1 to nursery after having DS2, I put the baby down for people to fuss over him and walked out without him 5 minutes later! I just went into my normal routine of helping DS1 with his coat, putting his bag away, and made it back to my car before realising I didn’t have the baby. I can totally see how a parent could forget if it wasn’t part of the normal routine.

The article linked above is brilliant, well worth a read.

I lose my phone and wallet on a weekly basis tbf, it happens

If it's hot enough to kill a dog, it's hot enough to kill a child.

Er yes, ok? Did you read the rest?

Just don’t put your child in the car and set off on a drive. It’s that simple. If you identify that you are at risk of forgetting your child in the car, because you are forgetful of basic belongings, take public transport. A taxi, bike or walk instead.

I see how it could be done. One time I had to drop my son off on my to work. Driving to work is so "auto-pilot" for me. The turn I needed to take to drop him off was literally within minutes of leaving the house. I was already in auto-pilot by that point that I drove right past it. My son said "why didnt you turn?" and I was shocked how quickly I had completely forgot. Had he been a sleeping baby in the back of the car what would have happened? I'd like to think I would have remembered but reality is I dont know if I would have.

Yes.

It gets hot enough to kill a dog during a British summer. You don't have to live in Arizona to make this fatal mistake.

It's my worst nightmare, and I can 100% see how it would happen. Hideous and horrific.

But people don't always remember those things. I once left my phone in a work office I was visiting, two hours' drive away. I'm always leaving it in the car (I put it in the glove box so it can't distract me while driving, then forget it when I get out).

You just don't hear about people leaving their phones in cars in the news.

It gets hot enough to kill a dog during a British summer. You don't have to live in Arizona to make this fatal mistake.

I'm not sure how this relates to my post. I explained why there are more child car deaths in the US than UK is because of extreme temps.

I don't understand how you extrapolated that it's never hot enough here. I clearly said it's not hot enough for 9-10 out of 12 months a year, hence less chance of fatal heatstroke.

?

Dogs have a different body to humans so that could also increase probability of heatstroke

Then you are very careless! Why wouldn’t you be more careful, knowing the inconvenience it causes to sort out?

@SexSectionNameChange Thanks for posting this. For anyone with any doubt as to how this can happen please read the article.

I've always done what's been dubbed the "flight check" by the kids to make sure I've not forgotten one but I still find it hard to imagine actually forgetting one

I wonder if they were in rear facing seats and so it's easier to visually miss them?

Embarrassing moment to tell you: first child, first trip to the pediatrician, 10 days old, he was obviously my world. Got him (and myself) fully dressed ready to go. Purse on shoulder, diaper bag on other shoulder, keys in hand and out the door I went. Left him in his car seat on the kitchen counter. He is 52 now.* *He has grandchildren of his own.

One of the hints I have seen is that the driver takes off their left shoe and puts it in the baby's car seat. Obviously you need two shoes to function and you don't forget the babe.

That’s a stupid hint surely? Aren’t you then driving with a shoe missing?

Then you are very careless! Why wouldn’t you be more careful, knowing the inconvenience it causes to sort out?

Why do you care? Are you the one searching under my sofa? Well done on never losing your possessions here's you award 🍪

Is so easy to do. I know one mum that dropped her oldest child off at nursery with her band new baby in tow, walked off and left newborn in pram there too. They had to run off after her to come back for it. She went on autopilot. DH colleague arrived at work, walked into a meeting, looked at his phone, swore lots and then disappeared for ages. Eventually came back and sheepishly admitted he was in charge of drop off that morning and had autopilot drove to work and left sleeping baby in car. Arrived in meeting, glance at phone to text from wife asking how drop of went. Thankfully only left for approx 15 min.

I read about this one, I think there was a change in routine- she was off from nursery that week for some reason. So the dad usually arrived home without any kids and was in autopilot mode.

SmudgeButt
Who was the politician a few years back that forgot his baby/child at the pub his family stopped for to have lunch?

David Cameron and his wife went out with their family plus security guards for lunch at a pub near Chequers and each thought the child (who had popped back into the pub to go to the loo) was with the other, in the other car, when they left. They only realised when they got home (a mile or two away) that she was with neither of them.

Mysteriously, the media perception (and it seems the memory on here) was only that he had forgotten the child; that there was another adult, also its parent, who had also been involved, seemed to get completely written out. Can't think why: this sort of thing is usually the woman's fault as far as the press is concerned.

There was a press story once about a woman waiting in a plane for takeoff who was very taken aback when it was delayed for a while and then the stewardess approached her with the baby she had left in the terminal when she boarded! Just as well that got spotted before the plane did take off.

And a friend of mine, when she'd had a baby a couple of weeks before, carefully put the clothes-wash into the oven and the basted chicken for supper into the washing-machine. (Luckily at that point she realised what she was doing and rescued the wash before it started to char.) Sometimes when you have recently had a baby all your neural pathways seem to get a bit scrambled because all your routines are disarranged.

This particular case may have happened some years ago but it’s in the news now as her parents want to warn others!

I did find it extremely odd that a 3 year old didn’t make her presence known during a short trip in the car in the morning though. She was kept off pre-school (reason not stated) and was in the car while her father dropped older DC at school. He went home as WFH but forgot she was there and only realised when his wife rang him from work to see how she was 4 hours later. It doesn’t say if she fell asleep in the car if she was unwell and hence why she wasn’t at pre-school but if so why didn’t the Dad take the day off? Having had 3 year olds, they’d have had to be really unwell to sleep again shortly after they’d got up, more likely they’d have been cranky, irritable, screamy.

I can’t imagine the horror that little girl would have gone though crying and yelling for her Dad while being roasted alive just outside her own home.

I’m sorry but I don’t buy ‘the parents have been punished enough’ BS. The child was a person in their own right and if they lost their life in a horrific. torturous, long drawn out way due to the actions of the people who should have been their biggest protectors, they deserve justice in their own right.

A 2 month old died in the same way in California just a few days ago. There seem to be about 30-40 cases a year in the US.

There does seem to be a high prevalence of these cases in the US, more so than anywhere else in the world. It’s not the only country that gets extremely hot in summer. So very weird.

I recently went back to work from maternity leave and had to go to a meeting at another office. On my drive there I instinctively looked in my rear view mirror at my baby and spoke to them. Because I am so used to always having them in the car with me I forgot they weren't there. I can totally see how it could be the other way round and I've forgotten they are in the car with me. Terrifying but completely possible.

This particular case may have happened some years ago but it’s in the news now as her parents want to warn others!

Yet you’ve posted just to say horrible things about them and say they deserve more punishment on an open forum that her parents could easily read if they google it.

The US is absolutely massive and if countries like India are leaving their children to die in hot cars they probably won’t be reporting it in the daily Mail in western media will they.

I too thought that, and said so in post above...But this article is terrifying because of how common it is!

All classes of people, all professions, men and women equally..

It really is alarming how regularly it occurs in USA at any rate.

https://archive.ph/5wGkg

I read one about a doctor who drove to work and did heart surgery all day whilst his toddler was in the car and died ☹️