You don’t have to have gone through this to feel at least a little pity for this parent—you just have to come close once or twice in a lifetime. There are few people more scatter-brained than a parent of a baby—there is just so much distraction. The very nature of being a parent means that your focus is divided from moment to moment—add to that working a couple of jobs and doing without rest. Oh, I know how it might happen. Thank the Lord it never did.
In addition to all the things you mentioned, I also blame a certain amount of the problem to the child being in the back seat and often asleep and quiet.
Like you, I am grateful that no serious harm befell during the “growing years”. The guilt would be unbearable.
Add to this the fact that it is illegal to put a child seat in the front seat where you can see and be aware of them.
And the fact that they make you put the baby in the back seat (out of sight and out of mind).
I’m convinced that if we could put our children in the front seat like we used to, this wouldn’t happen.