Baby died in car

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Friday, Miami Florida, a man loaded his two kids in the car, takes his son in to school,then drove to his job.
After work, he picked up his son, but when he went to his daughter's daycare, they insisted she wasn't there, had not been brought in that morning.
Checking the car, she was there, dead, after nine hours in a car seat in the Miami heat, in a closed car.
I do not have kids.
But is a six-month-old baby usually that quiet during the car rides, and don't parents, and everyone else, look around the inside of the car before locking the door?
No one in his employee parking lot heard her crying?
Where were the security guards?
Where I work, they are all over, patrolling constantly.
Any opinions?

Sylkat

Oh, how awful!

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/25/3 ... ft-in.html

It seems that he forgot she was there. Babies are often quiet in the car, and the seat is rear facing so she wasn't easily seen. How horribly sad.

That happens from time to time.

From what I understand, if you are a white collar worker you are far less likely to be sent to prison for it than if you are a blue collar worker.

It's an awful thought that someone could forget a baby in a car,it was easier to remember the baby when it was in the front seat.That's not considered safe anymore.I read an article that said to put your purse or briefcase in the back with the child to help prompt memory.I can see how an over worked,stressed,tired,running late, individual who usually does not drop the baby off could forget.We do tend to fall into routines.I feel bad for everyone involved.

Maybe these car seats do need to be placed in the front seat, rather than the back...this is about the third or fourth time this year that a child has died this way ......

Sylkat

That's what I was wondering,seems like we could come up with a safe way to haul Jr. around.What if your kid was choking in the back seat? You may not notice if you can't see the child.

It's not all that uncommon for someone to try to drive into their garage with their bicycle mounted on a roof rack on top of their car. I used to know some bicyclists who used a hang-tag from the mirror with a picture of a bicycle on it to remind them that their bicycle is strapped to the roof.

Perhaps something like that would be useful to help remind people that there is a baby in the back.

Or maybe just hang a dirty diaper from the mirror.

There could be a little device, the opposite of anti-theft device, so for example, that if parent puts two offspring in car and only takes one out, that an alarm goes off signifying help is required. You could sell a bunch of 'em to get rich and save lives.

I hate hearing stories like this. Especially since I do have a little girl.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Dear Kraichgauer, as a concerned father, what do you suggest to stop this from ever happening again?

Sylkat

This is really sad. But, what gets me is how did he forget to take his child to daycare?!? Are some people's lives so busy that they forget to do these essential things or does the Dad maybe have undiagnosed early onset dementia (I'm being totally serious because maybe he should not be blamed at all). I must also say that if my daughter hadn't turned up at daycare, the staff would have phoned me to find out if something was up, within a half hour of us being late. That could possibly have prevented this tragedy.

Excellent point, Mummy, why wasn't the daycare calling about her?

Sylkat

Mummy_Of_Peanut made an excellent point. But all I can think of at the moment is, if you're going to be a parent, then your child has to be the most important thing in your life - certainly more important than the job and career this guy was racing off to.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

That's how is is for me (my daughter is the single most important thing in my life, above all else that might be going on). Which is why it totally perplexes me that anyone could forget about their own child (unless he has some undiagnosed illness). He must be feeling awful, beyond imagining.

I find it all sad when those incidents happen. I used to be critical about it thinking all those parents are stupid thinking a kid won't die in the hot car but come on, who would leave their kid in the car in 100 degree weather thinking the child be fine in it? No one wakes up and thinks "Oh today I am going to drop my kid off at daycare but go to work instead leaving him in the car because I am too lazy to do it." Then I read an article about it in The Washington Post explaining how it's an accident and how it can happen to anyone. My mom almost did this once when she had my youngest brother and it upset her deeply. She ended up calling in sick and told my dad she can't do this anymore. She was sleep deprived, she be up half of the night taking care of my brother, she get up at 5 am and get all us kids up for the day, she take each of us to day care and it take her a half hour to drop us all off. She dropped my brother and I off but she forgot her youngest. If she would not have looked in the back seat as she got out, she would not have seen my brother sleeping. So after that my dad would take all us kids to daycare and mom would go pick us up. She was too scared that she would forget my brother in the car.

No I never look in the back when I get out of the car, I never checked the back to make sure car doors are locked. My cars doors locked after I lock it. but after hearing how this can happen to anyone, I never say never anymore. All those parents out there who have left their kids in the car to die were also the ones who thought it would never happen to them. Parents leaving their kids in cars may be more common than we think because it goes unnoticed. No parent talks about it but they would online on parenting forums. Not all kids die in cars because it's not always hot out when it happens, parents realize they forget their kids so they end up going back and getting them before the car gets too hot inside. So those would go unnoticed.

But it scares me to even imagine this happening to me. Those out there who always check their back seats for whatever reasons are less likely to forget their kids in the car. Same as if you work on a routine of putting your purse in the back or always checking the car seat or leaving the diaper bag up front with you or having a stuffed animal in the car seat and then always having it up front when the kid is in their car seat so you know they are there.

Also car seats can't be placed in the front because of the air bags and it's against the laws for car seats to be in the front. Even if there are no air bags or it's not activated, still against the law I have read.

But I wonder why this is happening now these days than back in the times? I heard it became more common when the law passed about kids must be in the back seat of the car. But it's rare when this happens because there have only been over 500 cases since 1998 about kids dying in cars. A lot still but looking for the past 14 years, it still looks rare. There have been a lot more babies than that that were born over the years. But kids have always rode in the back seats too so how were they not forgotten back in the days? Or maybe they were and they just went unreported so no one knew about it until the media started showing it?

I can't even comprehend how bad the parents must feel.About two years ago a man picked up his baby daughter from his ex,he then picked up a friend ,they then got out leaving baby in car and found some meth to do.Then they stayed high for hours,forgot about the baby and the poor child died.Left in a parked car in the Arkansas summer heat.There's no excuse for behavior like that.I can wrap my mind around someone who may be sleep deprived(babies can mess up a sleep schedule)and in a brain fog being forgetful but to have your baby with you to score meth,there's no word to describe how despicable that is.To choose drugs over your child's welfare.What a tragic event,the poor mother trusting that the baby would be o.k.