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.

You don't think solely about your job for 10hrs.

You may not have but some people do. Hand on heart I can say I never thought of my kids from the minute I got to work until I left, it was incredibly busy and I had to be incredibly focused on what was going on.

At some point on a break or whatever you do think of other things and then you'd think shit where are my kids today surely.

It’s fantastic you got breaks, not everyone does. If you literally don’t get the chance to go to the toilet (while I had a bladder of steel pre-kids, post kids I’d wear incontinence pants in case I couldn’t go), the chance of sitting around daydreaming about your kids is vanishingly remote.

I actually wonder if this is something that car manufacturers need to tackle. An alarm that goes off if the car is stationary, locked and still has a car seat with weight in it on the back seat?

There's sensors for people sitting on seats without seatbelts on so it wouldn't be that hard to do. Something where the alarm always goes off and you have to push a button to stop it. Anything that's a trigger to check. Because this could happen to anyone.

I remember when my youngest ds was a month old and we drove to collect eldest ds at playgroup. I put his baby seat back in the car (he'd been sleeping so I'd carried it in) and when I got home my eldest was clutching the baby seat that was right next to him. Id forgotten to plug the baby seat back in. Thank god for his brother who'd had the sense at 2 years old to hold onto it and stop it lurching about!!

I mean that it's not something I'd want to admit to, being that forgetful that I'd forget my own small child. It's not something to be proud of.

That's a weird take 🤔

You know it's more likely to happen to you if you have this attitude.

The thing is @Gloriia, his DC may well have crossed his mind. He may well have pictured his child having a lovely time at nursery. He has no idea he left the child in the car. Our minds don’t always tell us the truth and it would be foolish to assume they do.

'If it reaches anyone, especially stressed out workers, who statistically are more often Dads'

Perhaps men are less able to multitask and drive a car, get to work and drop their dc off all at the same time?

Everyone is distracted and 'stressed'. I'd be interested to know if he forgot to put his shoes on that morning or pick his phone up as these too are things we all do on autopilot.

The minimising and excusing this abject neglect on here is shocking, it isn't normal it can't happen to anyone amd it isn't due to stress. Maybe distraction but omg how do they function at work if they can't drop their dc off safely?!

oh my god @Gloriia.
read
the
article

right I'm signing off, I think I've made my points. Thanks everyone for sharing this information around them.

Its never happened and I'm no different to most people. Why would this attitude make a difference.

People need to focus. Apart from anything else, in this instance, if the person was so distracted he'd have been a total liability behind the wheel.

My god you need to let go of your pre conceived ideas, the vast majority of these children are dearly loved and taken care of, this is not wilful neglect it is a flaw of the human brain which could happen to ANY human.

Quite agree. Not a popular opinion it seems.

Because the attitude of "It will never happen to me" makes you complacent and less likely to put measures in place to stop it happening.

All these sleep deprived people getting behind the wheel of a car, scary.

My impression is that dogs left in hot cars is generally because people have chosen to leave them there, ignoring the risks. Hence, villification.

Parents whose children die in hot cars have made a horrible, terrible mistake that they'd never have chosen.

Everyone is distracted and 'stressed'. I'd be interested to know if he forgot to put his shoes on that morning or pick his phone up as these too are things we all do on autopilot.

Putting the shoes on isn't the same situation, you're just reinforcing the article you haven't read that we do things on autopilot. If you have a day where you're not suppose to put your shoes on, and you go out with them on is more similar. Or if you always drive straight to work and you do that on autopilot.

These threads always go the same way, where a handful of people, don't read the article and are like that would NEVER happen to me, as others have said if anything this unwillingness to see that good loving parents can end up in this situation, makes it more likely to happen to you, because you won't put any systems in place.

I think off the back of this thread everyone needs to make sure they ask their nursery to ensure that they have written into their policy that they call parents within 1 hour should a child not arrive at nursery.

Crazy. I've never seen serious neglect enabled and excused so much.

That’s life!

It’s a tragic horrendous accident. Every sane adult is aware of the risk, people make mistakes everyday, some minor others are catastrophic.

It’s usually men who leave a child accidentally, it’s not at the forefront of their mind. A colleague drove to work with his baby and only noticed because the baby cried, it was his day to drop at crèche.

My mother left my Dsis in the shop many moons ago, it’s human error.

I know some women and men leave children in the car consciously, that’s different, that’s neglect.

Again, no one is trying to enable people to forget their child FFS, the whole point of this thread is to alert people to the possibility of this happening to try and prevent it.

It's never happened to most people. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen to most people. It's very rare fortunately due to the combination of circumstances that need to occur.

It really is important that people listen to these cases and note the vulnerabilities at play because we could all be there, but awareness allows us to put contingencies in place.

But it won’t happen to them, they don’t need to put measures in place

Maybe have rearview mirrors positioned so you can see your kids and have a look at them every so often to remind you they're there?! Maybe speak to the kids whilst they're in the car?

It is not nursery's responsible to check up on parents, what next ask Tesco to play over the tannoy messages to check that parents haven't left their kids at home or in a hot car whilst on 'autopilot'?

I imagine that all the people this has happened to also thought that it could never happen to them.

More responsible to acknowledge that there is simply no way anyone can know whether this is something they could potentially do and therefore to put safeguards in as appropriate.

Don't be ridiculous 🙄