Serious question: how many people here could have ever forgotten you had a child in the car with you? No matter how old or where they were sitting?
Brought my wife home from the hospital after giving birth to our second child. In the process of getting her and her stuff into the house, I had set the baby carrier down beside the car.
Got her and her stuff into the house and got her settled in. I started doing some other things then it hit me: "where's the new guy?"
I suppose we weren't used to having him around. He was fine and we laugh about it now. But, I'm sure if he'd been out there for hours and died it would be a lot different.
Serious answer: No one would ever think "Oh, yeah, I could forget I had my child in the car."
NO ONE ever thinks it would happen to them...that's why it's called 'accident' - even as tragic as this.
How many of us have NEVER done anything that resulted in a bad outcome?
There seems to be more rush-to-judgment responses here than retrospection or understanding that tragic mistakes do happen. It would be a wonderful world with only infallible people in it...but we haven't reached that level yet.
BTW, child seat sensors are coming. My Daughter and hubby just bought a van that sets off a sensor if you put a child in the FRONT seat and wont allow the car to start.
I'm hoping they'll work on sensors that will go off if the car is shut off and there's a child still in a car seat.
Mine were with me in the car once, very quiet. I forgot all about them until I cussed out another driver and then one of them piped up.
"Serious question: how many people here could have ever forgotten you had a child in the car with you? No matter how old or where they were sitting?"
I haven't, but I have done many risk taking activities, and I know that the more often you do a simple activity the more likely you will have a mind f**t, especially when that activity is a part of your daily routine.
Even though the consequences are the worst imaginable and would destroy a parents life, many of us recognize that something like this can happen.
There are myrid responsibilities to parenting. Actually, I clicked to see if some local prosecuter is ghoulish enough to want to get in on the publicity. Then there is they man above who will take baby carseats, already expensive monstrosities, and turn them into costly security system add ons.
I haven't but I have had close calls where my not paying attention could have hurt my child.....
but apparently, most people here are perfect and not only have never had such moments, but haven't sinned either.......
On a cross-country trip to New York, my husband mistakenly believed that our son was sleeping in the back seat, and drove away on the Interstate, when in fact he had gone back into the rest stop to check out the video games.
He got as far as the Pennsylvania/NJ state line he was stopped by state police, who asked him, "Did you forget something?"
Our son was 16 years old at the time. I was not on this trip, it was some "father/son" bonding experience.