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Shortly after my 2nd was born, this almost happened to me. I am a GOOD parent. They are in their teens now, and happy, healthy, smart, polite, funny, wonderful kids. But one day I was overtired or overwhelmed or over-something, and my brain clicked off on my morning drive. I loaded them in the car, backed out of my driveway, and sort of came to as I was parking my car at work. I remember being a little confused, and just as I was going to get out of the car, something reminded me they were there. I was stunned. I almost left them. I forgot they were there. I drove right past my daycare. It was the worst thing that's ever happened to me, that feeling that I almost left them there. It isn't something that happened because I was a bad parent, or because I was on drugs, or because of anything--it just happened. I can't explain it, because I don't understand it. I hear the stories from parents where this was a legitimate accident and my heart breaks for them. I can't judge them and call them monsters. I can only feel sorry for their heartbreaking losses.
Such deaths are so sad. So terribly sad.
Surely technology could help. Imagine a set of sensors that could determine an adult has left the car, the engine has turned off, and there is an infant crying or waving its arms, or a dog barking or moving around.... and it sets off the car's alarm system.
Neighbor frequently arrives home with sleeping toddlers and leaves them in the car with the engine running and AC on.
"shudder to think"
Hence is the reason why you should have to have a license to have children.
But nooo that would be wrong so things like this KEEP happening.
Like that would do any good.
You have to have a license to drive, get married, carry a gun but people still drive recklessly and cause accidents and deaths, get divorced and accidentally shoot someone.
Shortly after my 2nd was born, this almost happened to me. I am a GOOD parent. They are in their teens now, and happy, healthy, smart, polite, funny, wonderful kids. But one day I was overtired or overwhelmed or over-something, and my brain clicked off on my morning drive. I loaded them in the car, backed out of my driveway, and sort of came to as I was parking my car at work. I remember being a little confused, and just as I was going to get out of the car, something reminded me they were there. I was stunned. I almost left them. I forgot they were there. I drove right past my daycare. It was the worst thing that's ever happened to me, that feeling that I almost left them there. It isn't something that happened because I was a bad parent, or because I was on drugs, or because of anything--it just happened. I can't explain it, because I don't understand it. I hear the stories from parents where this was a legitimate accident and my heart breaks for them. I can't judge them and call them monsters. I can only feel sorry for their heartbreaking losses.
........ But one day I was overtired or overwhelmed or over-something, and my brain clicked off on my morning drive...
Sort of reminds me of last night.
I had overslept, woke up very late. I could have just grabbed things and charged out but I took a few more minutes, idle minutes, under my justification "to bring the flight computers on line".
Another element of our world, "rush rush rush".....perhaps we ought to slow down a little.
No? Then what is the answer for stupid parents? . An average of 37 kids die from being in a hot car each year in the U.S., in some cases on a relatively mild day with only 70 F temperatures.
That's 37 children who will never have their first kiss or go to prom or have kids of their own.
That's just ONE site I'm sure it jumps up and down depending. IF your too busy with your life that you forgot that your children were in the car, then your not a fit parent. Why? Because your life no matter how successful came before them. I highly doubt there is a way to prove they were loving parent or how successful they were. Odds are they were on their cellphones or playing on social media to even care.
I CAN guarantee there's no way to prove that they shouldn't have children.
A tragedy? Yup. Something we should start punishing before the act? Nope.
I really hate stories like this. On a 96 degree day, so imagine the temperature inside. Adults would open the door and bolt out of there after only a few seconds. It's torture.
^This has been gone over every time these threads arise. The technology exists, but no one will take the risk of being sued if it fails.
And what good does a car alarm do? Car alarms go off all the time. Nobody pays attention anymore. One of the fathers in the Washington Post story had an alarm that detected motion. He was sitting in his office and his alarm went off a couple of times. He didn't remember that he had his son that day, and he thought something external in the lot was setting it off. He walked somewhere to get lunch, and when he got back to work he saw police and a crowd around a car in the lot and went over to investigate. Only then did he realize it was his car--and that they were pulling his dead baby put of the back seat.
One of the ideas the kids had, which could be done with an app with modern cars, was that if the heat became dangerous, the alarm would go off, but police would also be called and windows would go down. Their idea was the car would make so much noise, and a message saying there was a child inside, that if people didn't get there as fast, the tomb would be unsealed by the car itself. They had considered a lot of things including an existing sounding alarm not being enough.
It also called police and emergency rescue people.
It would also react if there was a pet in the overheated car.
I really hate stories like this. On a 96 degree day, so imagine the temperature inside. Adults would open the door and bolt out of there after only a few seconds. It's torture.
Yep. I go in my car after work that has tinted windows and a sunshade and I feel like I'm going to die in the 30 seconds or so until my AC starts blowing that cold air. I can't imagine being locked in there for more than a few minutes, let alone hours.
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So this is a very interesting graphic. It describes the demographics of people who accidentally leave kids in the car, and the child dies of heatstroke. (Also statistics for intentional leaving, and kids getting into cars during play, etc.)
Of the people who accidentally leave the kids in the car, 33% of the time it's the dad, 28% of the time it's the mom, and other caregivers to a lesser extent.
That's statistically very relevant. Of the number of cartrips with one parent and a preschooler, what percent are the dad driving? My guess is less than 20%. Just a guess. For them to be responsible for 33% of the unintentional forgotten heat stroke deaths is significant. Very.
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