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.

My car is a 2015 plate and it has a keyless start. They don’t need to be that modern. Along as the key is somewhere in the car it starts.

There is actually a case in America where the dad was charged with deliberately leaving his son in a hot car and the son died and there was another case where the dad left his twin babies in the car while he went to work and they both died. Just awful.
I definitely think it can happen, otherwise it wouldn't be a thing that we read about every so often in the news.

Why have you dragged up a tragedy from 5 years ago? Can you imagine the horror that these poor parents have had to endure. Parents make mistakes/ get distracted etc . Am not sure what your intentions were starting this post !

There have been a couple of cases in Belgium: I remember one from 2007 as my eldest was a baby back then: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-458063/Baby-dies-stressed-mum-forgets-leaves-car-hours.html
and I could totally relate to how it happened.
Googling to find this story, I found another one in Belgium from last year: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/baby-forgotten-in-parked-car-dies-in-belgium/2917418
I know not all of these are young babies, but Belgium, like US, has a relatively short maternity leave period (16wks) - does this correlate with parents being mroe exhausted/ baby brain?

DH forgot DD when she was about 2. He was out of routine and was nearly in work when she said "Cow, Daddy" and he jumped out of his skin, turned around and drove 40 minutes back to drop her off at nursery.

He's a wonderful and devoted father but I can totally imagine that if she hadn't spotted the cow he could have just walked off and left her.

know not all of these are young babies, but Belgium, like US, has a relatively short maternity leave period (16wks) - does this correlate with parents being mroe exhausted/ baby brain?

that’s interesting I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a factor in some cases

It happened to a baby in Ireland a few years ago. I might have some details wrong, but the parents used to share drop off and the dad drove to work on autopilot, forgetting the baby was in the back. He parked on the street outside a GP surgery or somewhere like that, but none of the many people who passed the car noticed the baby.

Utterly tragic, so easily done.

Yes. It was a little girl of 7 months. On the hottest day of the year in May 2017. So not unheard of over this side of the Atlantic. Sadly.

Yes this case in ireland. We never have exceptionally warm days at all. Baby was asleep in the back and the father completely forgot. Poor man came out after work and found the poor child. Absolutely heartbreaking. Don't know of the poor man would ever recover.

Also everyone saying you wouldn't forget your purse phone etc. My husband constantly forgets everything in the car. So many times we have had to return to the car cause he's left his phone on a seat while out

@MissingKitty Driving doesn't require two shoes so its not a "stupid" hint.

Yes it is. There’s a reason it’s not recommended to drive bare foot or in flip flops. The risk from reducing stopping distance with stupid/no footware is larger than the tiny tiny risk that you might forget your child is in the car with you.

you’re more likely to remember your phone than your child?

The point is that in an automatic you don't use your left foot at all. You only need a shoe on your driving feet, i.e. just the right foot for many people (or vice versa in left hand drive cars).

If that’s the case the poster is implying all cars are automatic, which is very obviously not the case. If you need to remove your footware to remember your child then just take the bus. It’s stupid

@MissingKitty

I think the reason the PP said the left shoe (specifically) was because if the car is an automatic, you don't need your left foot, just the right for brake/accelerator. They're probably used to automatics, rather than manual.

But people DO forget their phone/wallet/keys all the time!
There is something about a change in routine. My friend normally would pick her sons from school without her younger daughter. This one time she took her, collected her boys and went home. It was only when her husband asked 'where's DD'? that she realised she had left her at the school.

I think I've misread one of your earlier posts then. Sorry about that.

The left shoe trick only works in the States where they think you're some kind of freak if you have a manual gearbox. In the UK, automatic transmission cars are rarer.

Sheesh. This was already covered by several people, including me.

This is harrowing...
God. I just can't imagine. So awful for all involved.

If this thread makes one parent think to check the back seat on a hot day when they otherwise would have forgotten, it was worth posting.

Here's another "only relevant for some drivers" tip, for people driving with any sort of "rear occupant detection" or seatbelt warning system. Babies are often too light to be detected as a passenger missing a seatbelt, but the car will typically tell you if the seatbelt is in use. Get a universal seat belt clip (or, we have an unused "dog harness") and plug it in whenever baby is in their seat.

Bonus point: If using dog harness method, the collar clip end can be clipped to the baby seatbelt instead so it forms part of the natural "putting baby in seat" routine (get to car, remove dog thing and plug in to the normal car seatbelt. Put child in seat and secure. Done. Drive. Car tells you the seatbelt is in use. Arrive at destination. Car says passenger. Unclip child and remove from car. Unplug dog lead and reattach to baby seat. Leave).

I imagine wallets get forgotten far more frequently than children.

DD’s Cybex car seat in the US had a sensor so it would alert your phone if you’d left the kid in the car or they were too hot, too cold or unbuckled. It’s a shame they aren’t on the European seats but they’re on the chest clip which we don’t have here, so maybe it’s not possible.