On Friday, July 26, 2019, a father in New York City drove to work. He worked a full day. Upon reached his parked car, he was horrified to discover that he had forgotten to drop his 1-year-old twins off at their daycare facility. Both infants died of heat stroke. The father was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Grieving, this father could not understand how this horrific accident could have happened--how he could possibly have forgotten that he had not dropped the children at daycare.
Seeking answers, he found the name of Dr. David Diamond, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida. Dr. Diamond has studied memory for 40 years and hot car deaths for 15 years. Dr. Diamond told The New York Times that he told Mr. Rodriguez that hundreds of other parents have also left their children in hot cars, with similarly tragic results. This kind of lapse in memory has happened to doctors, accountants, teachers. Since 1998, about 440 children nationwide have died of heatstroke after being forgotten in cars, generally not because of a lack of love, Dr. Diamond said, but because of how human memory functions. Twenty-one children have died from heatstroke in cars since just the start of 2019; more than 800 children have died from this preventable tragedy since 1998.
A friend described to me how she remembers that her grandchildren are in the back seat of her car to avoid a lapse in memory. She took an old sock and cut the toe off of it. She attached ribbons, bells and "silly stuff" to the sock. She wears the sock while driving. After she takes her grand kids from the car, she tucks her reminder into a cup-holder so it's ready to use when she prepares to take the children home.
The organization Kids&Cars explains on its website other helpful ways for a driver to be reminded that there are children in the back seat. Technology exists to solve this problem. How simple it would be for auto manufacturers to install an alarm to remind a driver that there are children remaining in the car. After all, there are alarms to remind passengers to put on their seat belts. My car sounds an alarm when I start it if I've put a heavy briefcase on the passenger front seat--telling me that a seat belt might be required. Pending legislation would make installation of a similar alarm when weight on the back seat(s) could mean that there is a child to be removed. See the Kids&Cars website here to read about this proposal, and then call or write your representative in Congress asking them to help move this legislation forward.
