Another baby has died in a hot car (Spain)

[comoatoupeira]

Another child has died in a horrific way after being accidentally left in a hot car.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/21/girl-dies-car-extreme-heat-spain

again, it was the father, distracted by work, who forgot to drop her off at nursery. I honesty don’t think this is a man/woman thing I think it is a work thing. In every one of this abominable stories it is someone being distracted by a work situation and they forget they haven’t dropped off the child. The article explains really well why it happens and how we need to make safeguards because we can’t rely on ourselves at all times.

distraction kills! Much more than malevolent intent.

AIBU to think that every single parent needs to read this article to realise it can happen to anyone and sometimes extreme stress and the power of habit can overcome us and cause the worst to happen
https://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

BE WARNED it is the most upsetting piece of writing I have ever read.

Horrific

I read on her last year when there was another unfortunate story to put things in the back footwell next to the car seat like your bag / laptop / keys / phone so you have to physically turn around to the baby / open the back door to get your things out and be reminded of the child there

Yes. You put your bag on the back seat. Or your phone if you can.

god it is just sick.

something really interesting in that article is also about the design of urban spaces: work places with huge car parks, like they have in the US, where no one is going to walk past a child screaming to death in a car.
The car as an invention has meant we have designed spaces where humans can become trapped and nobody walks by.

It annoys me how the article blames it on climate change. Even if it had been 5 degrees cooler, being in a car in the sun from 8:30 to 15:00 would have killed her.

god it makes me so furious.

Horrific. 😞

How tragic. I've driven to work with dd in the car before, she was a bit older and said mum what are you doing?! But it is easily done.

On hot days I message DH to double check he’s dropped DS at nursery. He’s never forgotten but it’s for my own peace of mind. Just set a reminder on your phone to repeat ‘DID I DROP DC AT NURSERY’ for 9.30am every day and surely that should be enough?

Yes, that’s a good idea too.
The problem is that people think it will never happen to them, just like swimming pool deaths

Maybe childcare settings should be contacting parents who fail to turn up when expected.

Maybe workplaces should call staff during their commute

Maybe np one shpuld answer the phone in the car.

Surely nursery would phone a parent if they’re expecting a child & they don’t turn up. It’s basic safeguarding.

At our nursery we always call if we're expecting a child to attend and they don't turn up. It's basic safeguarding.

I have never forgotten that Washington Post article. Horrific.

I know it’s probably frowned upon now, but I always had DS in a car seat in the front of my car with the airbag turned off. Out of sight out of mind is all too easy when you’re distracted.

When I turn my car off it beeps and a warning comes up on the screen saying ‘check rear seats for occupants’ it’s a sad state of affairs if car companies have to put this in their car models! Who the hell forgets they have a child in the back?

My dc is older now but this was a major fear of mine. I would text dh to check if dd was at nursery ok. I dont think he realised why i was doing it probably thought i was just curious!

Mine does too, but every journey, so I just block it out of my mind. I'm not convinced that it's very helpful. It just becomes background noise.

The bag in the back is a great idea though.

A very sad story 😢

I get what you mean but there was an article about a Dad who had forgotten his daughter in the US a while back and they talked to SO many parents who had forgotten, for various reasons... not usually taking the child, getting distracted by something, having something on their mind. I can't imagine doing it but it obviously does happen...

And the alerts like your car has, and the alarm someone mentioned above, only tend to work for a little while for a pretty big percentage of the population. After that, a lot of people just clear it on autopilot.

I'm in Spain at the moment, I work between here and the UK, my son has a nursery in each place. Strangely I'd say that where I am, nurseries are a lot more like schools... but in both places, they'd call if the child didn't turn up. I don't think it'd get beyond 30 minutes late in both places before they tried to make contact. I'm not sure what would have happened if nobody answered, though...

I don't know what the answer is. I can't imagine trying to live with the guilt of having forgotten your child and them dying as a result.

I remember that WP article.

I don’t think text reminders would work. Due to the flawed way our memories work, the parents involved in these tragedies are normally convinced that they have dropped their child off at the childcare setting as normal.

I agree, I don’t think the technological solutions are necessarily the best because it becomes autopilot.

good ideas are the nursery ringing (but the death can occur in 45 minutes!) if no show. And putting your bag next to the child.

Who forgets? Me. You. Any normal parent. The pattern is: routine changes (dad is taking kid when mum usually does or vice versa), autopilot kicks in (don't stop at nursery as planned, straight to work as usual), some distraction or stress has you go into working thinking about something else (presentation, home issues, whatever).

I think it's important every parent realises this could happen to them and knows the pattern so they can recognise when they'll be vulnerable and can make safe guards.

The problem is everyone thinks they could never ever forget their child in the car.
You people do.

I agree. A daily reminder would be ignored, not deliberately but just dismissed without thinking because of course you’ve dropped them off. They’d remember if they stopped to think about it, but why would you? I dropped my children off at school today and haven’t thought about it since.

The PP who said “who the hell forgets they have a child in the back?” - I imagine every parent in that horrific WP article could easily have thought the same. Recognising that it could be you is probably an important way to stop it being you.

Absolutely this.

Yes. “Recognising that it could be you is probably an important way to stop it being you.”
And this goes for lots of things.

my heart aches for those parents.

Some of you have mentioned similar, but look at the soft toy idea. You have a large soft toy, and you ALWAYS get it out if the back, and into the front seat, every time you drive. It's the habit principle. If people laugh, or think, it's funny, they should read stories like this.
I've heard several real life near misses-and all were very intelligent, professional women, who had no known problems (before someone asks if they were drunk/on drugs).

Tragic.
Not quite the same, but I see dogs left in hot cars still despite all the warnings :(