Posted on 07/25/2014 1:27:49 PM PDT by eccentric
EXACTLY THE POINT! It Is very rare. A dozen to a few dozen incidents a year depending on the information source. . Yet we are all up in arms castigating the people who have this happen.
There are many more incidents of parental negligence that result in a child’s death by people no more or no less forgetful or negligent than these parents. As many kids wander into the bathroom and drown in the toilet every year.
Should every person with a toddler be charged with neglect when they forget to close the bathroom door? Even if it was their eight year old that forgot to close it?
A few minutes is all it takes in a hot climate.
There are also far too many “close calls” that fortunately do not result in a tragic death. Some of those are documented here.
STATISTICS
Total number of U.S. heatstroke deaths of children left in cars, 2014: 18
Total number of U.S. heatstroke deaths of children left in cars, 2013: 44
Total number of U.S. heatstroke deaths of children left in cars, 1998-present: 624
Average number of U.S. child heatstroke fatalities per year since 1998: 38
See Monthly Statistics
See Per Capita Deaths by State
Circumstances
An examination of media reports about the 606 child vehicular heatstroke deaths for an fourteen year period (1998 through 2013) shows the following circumstances:
51% - child “forgotten” by caregiver (312 Children)
29% - child playing in unattended vehicle (177)
18% - child intentionally left in vehicle by adult (111)
1% - circumstances unknown (6)
Demographics of Persons Responsible for Heatstroke Deaths of Children Forgotten in Vehicles
Someone really needs to comes up with some sort of invention...”
The loss of this baby makes my heart hurt. My children were always in the front seat of a car so they could always be attended to if need be. Then the government and busybodies who think they have a right to tell everyone else how to live their lives had to get involved. So we now have airbags in the front passenger’s seat and those horrible car seats.
IMO we really do not need any more inventions to compensate for irresponsibility.
There is a simple idea that might save a lot of children. The parent with a child in a car seat in the back seat should simply put his/her purse/briefcase IN THE BACK.
Then, when they open the back door to get it, they will have a better chance of seeing that the child is in the car seat.
What do you think?
No, the point is you have to be a special kind of moron to forget YOUR KIDS.
Why not put the diaper bag on the front seat or put a diaper on the dash?
Maybe a small toy or a ribbon on the inside mirror?
As an after thought how about engaging one’s brain!
The last not directed at anyone here!
I have hated the very idea of The Metamophosis, since high school around 1973. I refused to finish the book, and wrote a bio on Edgar Allen Poe instead. Meta made my skin crawl. I guess that means he was a good writer, to have such an effect without using one word of profanity.
A recommendation is to leave your left shoe in the back seat. You might forget your briefcase, purse, cell phone, but you’re going to notice right away when you exit the car that you are missing your shoe.
Get over it
I didn’t say anything re legislation you did
Distraction? This is a country were trying to hang on to. Distracted parenting is a huge part of the problem
I grew up around a ton of kids baby boom. Kids got hurt playing and exploring not locked in somewhere by parents
This actually happened to us when my son was a baby. I hurried from the car to the house, laden with a diaper bag, etc., to run to the bathroom. When I came back to the living room I asked my husband if he brought the baby in. He said no, I thought you did. But this was minutes, not hours. It is very noticeable if your baby is not in the house, especially a crawling, curious 10 month old. My youngest grandson is 10 mos old now. I can't imagine overlooking that he's not in the house.
I’m thinking this sort of thing didn’t happen when I was younger, in the days before cars were air-conditioned. In those days, crime wasn’t as rampant as it is today, and cars would become so hot after sitting in the sun, you didn’t have air conditioning to cool them off, so you left the windows open. Also, fewer people had cars and took public transportation more often.
There has never been a time that I had one or more of my children in the car and I constantly checked my rear view mirror to see how they were doing. The baby was always in a car seat in the middle of the back seat, so was more easily visible. I always knew exactly how many of my children were with me in the car. Never came close to forgetting one of them.
Child restraining devices are the ‘cause’.
Nobody forgets a kid beside the driver in a booster seat with a little plastic steering wheel.
That lame excuse again?
Yeah, it is lame, but somewhat realistic.
It doesn’t happen when children are truly wanted and parents are happy to have them.
When children and spouses are disposable, mistakes are made.
I just have a problem with any parent being so distracted that they forget they have a child in the car with them. Children need to be in the front seat where parents can physically see them and comfort them when needed or spend time talking or singing to them rather than talking on their cell phone or focusing on other issues.
Certainly putting all their possessions in the back seat with the baby might help but whomever is accepting responsibility for transporting a child needs to learn to get it together.
What about having four or five kids? Everyone is so much better than others until something happens to them.
I don’t know these people. I can’t judge what is in their hearts. What I can say is that even with all the things that I get right as a parent, sometimes I get things wrong. I am not perfect. I suspect that you are imperfect as well.
These aren’t cases of people locking their kids in the car on purpose or intentionally beating them and unintentionally killing them. These are people who had a lapse of memory for some reason. I simply have a lot more compassion for them than anger.
I agree. This should never happen.
However, LOOK AT YOUR OWN STATISTICS. It is very rare. Less than one death per state per year. An average of 39. As for the same statistics, it shows that almost half where from children getting into the cars and playing in them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.