A companion question: how many kids are forgotten when they are in the front seat?
While the combination of hectic work schedules and daycare no doubt play a role in these particular deaths, parents also loose children because of forgetfulness or being unaware of what the child is doing at home, too. And let’s face it, many of us did things as children that parents would be arrested for today, including riding in cars without seat belts, riding in the open bed of a pickup on a highway, riding bicycles without helmets, staying alone in the car while our parents went in to the store, and so on. And that pales in comparison to the childhood risks my parents, aunts, and uncle endured had during the Great Depression. Think about traveling with a baby in steerage on an ocean liner or living in a one room tenement with a baby and no air conditioning or hot running water. The world hasn’t gotten that much more dangerous but our tolerance for mistakes and risks has gotten a lot lower.