Intentional or accidental, deaths of children left in hot cars can be prevented

A Georgia father will face murder and child cruelty charges for leaving his almost 2-year-old son in a hot car to die.

Prosecutors say he did it intentionally, and he was “sexting” with six people, including an underage girl, while his child died in the family car. According to prosecutors, the father had watched videos about hot car deaths and chatted in forums promoting a child-free lifestyle.

The evidence seems damning in that case but in many similar situations, a child perishing in a hot car is accidental.

According to SafeKids.org, a simple change in routine can set parents up for this fatal mistake.

WFSB reported that it was a hot summer day with temperatures in the high 80s three days ago, when a Connecticut father rushed his 1 and-a-half year old son to the hospital after realizing he left the boy in the car on a very hot day. He died.

In July alone, six caretakers in Connecticut, including mothers and fathers, have been arrested for leaving children unattended in hot cars.

Incidents of leaving a child in a car happens to mothers and fathers, it spans all races and all socio-economic classes.

It’s also a more recent tragedy. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that car seat safety experts decided children were safer positioned in the back seat, facing backwards. That has made it easier for a parent forget their child.

Julie Alonso with SafeKids.org says while some parents forget, others do it intentionally, but without malice.

“You decide, ‘Oh, I’m just going to run in the store. The baby is sleeping. I don’t want to disturb him. I’ll run in, grab a couple of things and come back out.’ But a car can heat up in an extremely short amount of time. Children have been known to die and suffer from heat stroke with outside temperatures as low as in the 70s,” says Alonso.

Even with the windows partially down, the temperature inside a car can reach 125 degrees in minutes and when a person’s core body temperature reaches 104, heatstroke sets in. A child’s body heats up five times faster than an adult.

Between 1998 to 2014, 622 children were killed in a hot car.

Washington state hadn’t had a death of its kind since 2005 until last year, when two children died.

“I’ve personally heard stories, where parents say, ‘I’m not usually the one who takes the child to daycare.’ Or even in a case where they strap the child into the car seat in one car and then went back in (the house) and something changed or one of the parents were sick, so they ended up taking the other car. That hectic morning routine, just being distracted by things of life and work and they forget until it’s too late,” Alonso says.

Tips for preventing hot car deaths

We can all understand the distraction of life, so what can you do so that this never happens to your child?

Alonso suggests setting a reminder. One idea is to take off your left shoe and place it next to the car seat. You can’t get out of your car and walk away without it. A purse or briefcase would work, too.

A Tennessee boy recently won a contest for inventing a reminder system. He had been moved by a story in his own town of a child that died in a hot car.

“Who doesn’t want to make something that saves people?” says 12-year-old Andrew Pelham?.

Pelham fashioned a rope out of rubber bands and duct tape that’s attached to the back of the driver’s seat and the car door so that mom or dad cannot get out without detaching the rope – thus remembering their child.

I just hope that people can use my design in the real world soon, because I just want to save one life. Then I’ll know my idea was successful,” Pelham says.

Police say never hesitate to call 911 when you see an unattended child in a car. You will not be charged with a crime for breaking a window to save a life.