Every summer, my heart breaks as I hear about another baby dying in a hot car. How can this possibly happen? The stories are almost always the same. A parent heads for work with their baby in the backseat, they get distracted and forget about the child. By the time the parent realizes that they left the child in their car, it's usually too late. KidsandCars.org states that about 38 babies every year die in hot cars across the United States.
In 2009, Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning story attempting to explain how parents could forget their own child in a car.
“What kind of person forgets a baby?,” Weingarten asked. “The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the last 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. … A Protestant clergyman. … An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Even with a window rolled down two inches, if the outside temperature is in the low 80s°, the temperature inside a vehicle can reach deadly levels in only 10 minutes. In fact, when left in a hot vehicle, a young child's body temperature may increase three to five times as fast an adult. High body temperatures can cause permanent injury or even death."
This tragic mistake can happen to even the best, most conscientious parent or guardian. KidsandCars.org suggests some important steps to help ensure that you never forget your child in the backseat:
- Put your purse, briefcase or whatever you must take out of the car with you next to the child—not in the front seat with you.
- Situate a mirror in the backseat so you can see children easily who are still small enough to be in rear-facing child seats.
- Put a large stuffed animal in the child’s car seat when it’s not occupied, and move the stuffed animal to the front seat when the child is in the car seat. The stuffed animal will serve as a visual reminder in the front seat with you.
- “Look Before You Lock” – make it a habit of opening the back door and looking inside every single time you get out of your car, even if you think you’re sure you don’t have a child with you.
- Make sure your child’s daycare center or babysitter calls you if your child does not show up as scheduled.
At least two manufacturers (Suddenly Safe 'N' Secure Systems, Inc. and Baby Alert International) make “car seat alarms” that are designed to remind parents when they turn off the car that their child is in the car seat. The systems utilize an alarm on the parent's keychain that is activated by a weight sensor on the car seat. No technology solution is absolutely infallible, so any devices designed to remind parents about the presence of a sleeping child in the car should be combined with some of the reminders and tips above.
Please share this important information with every parent you know. Using just one of these steps could save your child's life. Let's reduce these preventable deaths from 38 a year to zero.
Please share this important information with every parent you know. Using just one of these steps could save your child's life. Let's reduce these preventable deaths from 38 a year to zero.
