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.

This. ^ Shocked at people defending the parents to be honest.

We are inviting more of these awful tragedies by incentivizing mothers back to work with free childcare for 9 month olds rather than funding longer parental leave. Working parents are often utterly exhausted and under huge strain.

@Yourcatisnotsorry

Well I went back to work when mine were 3 months old - both times. (I had to, as maternity leave was only 14 weeks then, so I had about 8-9 days off before they were born, and then went back when they were 12-13 weeks old.) And inexplicably, I managed to not leave them shut in a hot car. In fact, I never accidently left them anywhere. And I'm not being smug. It's called good parenting.

.

Ok, let’s just say we agree with you that we shouldn’t need this technology, and that parents shouldn’t ever forget they didn’t drop their DC off at nursery. And that the parents are neglectful. (I’m not saying this is my view btw, just because it’s never happened either to my DH or me.) But the fact is that these tragedies have happened, whether the parents are fully to blame or not.

What’s the problem with such technology being available to prevent the tragedies from happening at all? If it can save the life of even one little one, surely that has to be a good thing? Rather than being righteous about a little child’s death after the event?

#What’s the problem with such technology being available to prevent the tragedies from happening at all?'

Oh because technology is often glitchy, these irresponsible people will then rely on beeps and alarms to tell them the glaringly obvious making them even more hopeless at managing childcare and safety situations.

When in charge of children's safety you should concentrate and focus without an app or whatever prompting you.

We have an EV and it beeps and alarms at the slightest thing you become desensitised and ignore it. Far better to engage one's brain.

So you wouldn’t forget your bag and leave it in the car, but you would your own child? Sorry I just don’t understand this.

’Easily done’? No, it isn’t. Shocking.

Does this relate to a particular post?

They are not irresponsible people, they are humans!

You can be human and irresponsible. Obviously. I take no joy in criticising these people but my sympathies lie with thr dc left for hours and the other parent thinking they were safe.

Children need their primary care givers to be careful, focused and not distracted. Not too much to ask or expect.

100% this. ^

Exactly. NOT leaving your baby in a boiling hot car (and forgetting they are there) is not that much of a bloody task for goodness sake!

It's the put your bag/phone/some important in the back. Wtf is more important than your actual child?!? If you can remember your phone but not your baby it doesn't say much for you as a parent 😳

In Italy they are now requiring that children under 4 have a special device attached to their seatbelt that will send an alarm and text messages if the parent moves away from it and it’s not deactivated.

Very sad. Babies and children should not be left in cars under any circumstances.

Does air conditioning in cars help?
I know the added cost is not feasible for a lot of people..

Maybe someone can come up with a small fan type product which can keep a car cool on a really hot day.

I've never left mine anywhere either. But there for the grace of God, go I.

Human memory is frighteningly fallible. It doesn't record events like a videotape which we can replay whenever we want. It's more accurate to say that our brains recreate our memories using clues from past and present, which includes other similar memories. It's a bit of a bodge job.

So, you might remember putting your keys in your pocket when you actually left them on a shelf in the hallway. You might start a new job, meet dozens of new colleagues and mix up two people who look nothing like each other, because they happened to be sitting at the same desk on different days. You might clearly remember Emma telling you an anecdote and be able to "hear" her voice saying the words in your mind, when you actually heard the anecdote from Becky.

And you might drive to the office with your baby son still in his car seat, because on that particular day, you had to stop off at a shop and this disrupted your routine enough to derail your memory. And later, you won't understand how this happened, because you clearly remember dropping him off at nursery. And when you thought about your son that morning, you fondly thought that as it was Friday, he would be enjoying the weekly Music Bugs session.

It's not really about important/not important it's about routine/not routine.

This is one of the reasons I love the safety features of my Toyota Yaris . If I open the back passenger doors of my car, for any reason, ie to put my coat into it , the next time I stop the car and turn the engine off, it warns me to check the back seat .
When I got the car I was very confused and couldn’t understand why it did it but the penny soon dropped, it is a safety feature to stop this happening to another child . I am sure it wouldn’t cost a great deal of money to install it in every car during manufacture.

Sorry but no.. I work full time as does my partner and as do most families, and I drop her to nursery twice a week - I can safely say I would never, ever forget my own child in a car, be it a hot or cold one no matter how ‘under pressure’ I feel. Not ever, period.
I might forget my newly brewed coffee in the car and then moan when I find it hours later stone cold but never my own baby!!
there is literally no excuse anyone can cling to to justify this.

This is the problem. You aren't understanding how it happens.

No words so so sad .. I can't read the article too upsetting 😢

I put my handbag on the back seat when I drive to work (via nursery drop). I’m the first person to arrive at work and physically can’t get into the building without the key that’s in my bag.

I like anyone else like to think that I could never forget DS in the car, but more than once I’ve done the other way round and momentarily thought ‘fuck where is he’ when I’ve been driving without him for some reason and glanced in the mirror at the empty car seat. There but for the grace of god.

I take it that means he's nearly always in the car with you?

The majority of these cases its parents out of routine. It the parent who doesn't normally do nursery drop off. But go into routine mode and drive to work like they usually do.

We are creatures of habit.
We do the same things day in day out its when we are doing something different that it goes wrong.

I wonder if anyone will fess up to driving via nursery when they didn't mean to.

Or drove to their old house forgetting they moved a few days ago (waved at an old neighbour doing that)

So did I. Honestly I did it because he screamed when he couldn’t see me so it was much easier to have him next to me. But also zero chance of ever forgetting him.

You don’t get any joy from criticising these people….. are you sure?