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Deliberately killed, or willfully neglected? My link shows 17% as “intentional” but that could mean several different things.
“20 states have Unattended Child Laws that have specific language addressing leaving a child unattended in a vehicle.
- The remaining 30 states do not have laws specifically against leaving a child unattended in a vehicle.
-Another 14 states have had previously proposed unattended child laws.
- There are 10 states with "Good Samaritan Laws" with specific language that protects persons who see a child in a car and take action to render assistance.
A 2005 Associated Press (AP) study found "Wide disparity exists in sentences for leaving kids to die in hot cars". It examined both the frequency of prosecutions and length of sentences in hyperthermia death.
- It found that charges were filed in 49% of all the deaths and 81% of those resulted in convictions.
- In cases with paid caregivers (i.e., childcare workers, babysitters) 84% were charged and 96% convicted.
- Only 7% of the cases involved drugs or alcohol” Fact Sheet - Heatstroke Deaths of Children in Vehicles
I thought the “Good Samaritan” law was interesting but sort of odd. I mean; if I saw a baby left in a hot car; I’m not going to give a crap about any law. I’ll be calling 911 but I’m not going to wait around. I’m confused with the 2005 AP study. How do you file charges “84%” of the time & have a 96% conviction rate?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ClaraC
It really always seems to be the dad. And dads are fabulous, but they are not mommies.
(I know people will probably post links where the mom did this, but doesn't it seem almost always to be the dad?)
Supposedly, dads have the highest incidence of “forgetting”; at 33%. Moms= 28%, both parents & childcare providers both= 11%, “other” relatives= 5% but grandmothers= 4%, grandfathers= 3% & 6% are listed as “other”.
There is a category for “gained access” regarding unsupervised children who get themselves into a car & die:
Moms= 44%, both parents= 19%, dad’s= 13%, childcare providers= 13%, “other” relatives= 9%, grandmothers= 3%, grandfathers= 2%, & 7% are listed as “other”.
Intentional:
Moms= 56%, dads= 20%, both parents= 6%, childcare providers= 8%, other relatives & grandmothers= 3%, grandfathers= 0% & 4% are “other”.
But I’d agree that recently, it seems like there have been more dads.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ClaraC
No, they haven't. Some 350 kids have died in this manner.
According to the statistics posted above, many kids climbed into cars themselves and couldn't get out. Others were purposely left in cars by their parents.
About 350 have been forgotten, accidentally.
My link did show 376 out of 700 deaths from heatstroke in cars were ruled as “Forgotten”. I think it’s easy to think of them all as “Neglect”, except the 120 that were ruled “intentional”. I’m not sure how I feel about that; I have 11 kids & I've never left or forgotten one of them anywhere. On the other hand; I have had one or two Houdinis who could have had time to get into a car, while I was running around inside yelling “This is not funny!”
Thank God they never did but it’s sort of a “there but for the grace of God go I” feeling I have.
This has nothing to do with excuses and everything to do with understanding how and why terrible things like this happen in the first place. Only when this is understood can work on actual solutions to problems like this.
I think my main objection to some of the discourse in this thread is that I don't believe it's a matter of roulette where everyone is equally susceptible. The..."it can happen to anyone" mantra just doesn't ring true (after all, it's really quite rare despite media hype). Some are more mindful and aware than others, and yeah, that makes it hard to understand how someone can completely forget that their own child is in the car. I've seem people in this thread try to compare it to driving off with a coffee cup on the top of the car, but people mentally prioritize things in a way that makes a child more important than a coffee cup.
Someone needs to do an analysis of why this happens. case by case.
It's been done. I think someone linked to it upthread. IIRC two of the most common factors were changes in childminding routine (i.e. the person would ordinarily have been alone for the drive) and sleep deprivation.
The closest comparison I can think of for those saying they don't understand how this happens is: have you ever forgotten to click the carseat harness/seatbelt fully in place for one of your kids?
It's not that it can happen to anyone. It's that in these cases there are a lot of commonalities that lead scientists to believe it's not the parents just being forgetful. It's a real disconnect in our brains.
Have you ever turned towards work on a weekend morning instead of the other way towards the grocery store or whatever? Then you have done this. But it's even worse, because the people are dressed in their work clothes and have all of the cues that it is a work day.
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The basal ganglia works independently of the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain that has to do with conscious awareness and new information. The hippocampus and the frontal cortex work together to plan future activities and events.
“This is where the systems compete against each other,” Diamond said. “In the case of you driving home, your basal ganglia wants to get you from Point A to Point B to the point it can suppress your hippocampus. People say you can forget to stop at the store, but you don’t forget your child is in the car. I get that feeling completely. I get that argument, but you can’t argue with brain function.”
The stories share some commonalities. A change in routine is the biggest one. Of course, living in a hot climate is another. I'm sure this happens in cooler climates but we don't hear those stories because the children don't die at such high rates or so quickly. And of course, it's babies mostly.
It seems the biggest thing parents could do to prevent this is to use the same parent for dropoff and the same parent for pickup. (Or one parent for both.) Personally I think all of the "tricks" proposed (stuffed animals, take a shoe off, stick your cell phone back there) have the chance for the same kind of error. JMO
I can never understand the rationale that you can forget a baby in the car. Does the baby not make any noise? Now I don't have a child, but I do have a dog, I spend almost the entire ride talking to her. I know for 100% fact I would do the same with my child, I'd be having a one way conversation the entire time so they know I'm there. Forgetting them would never happen, under any scenario. I'd never forgive a spouse who lacks the brain power to drop a child off, they're the #1 priority.
What do you want to bet these parents are yacking on their cell phones and not paying any attention to the child? I will never understand how this happens. When my kids were babies and toddlers if they weren't with me I was thinking about them all through the day. Maybe when a parent that doesn't usually takes the baby/child to daycare gets to work, the other parent should call and double check that everything is okay?
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"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aleii
The closest comparison I can think of for those saying they don't understand how this happens is: have you ever forgotten to click the carseat harness/seatbelt fully in place for one of your kids?
No. Because I never do that, because I was warned. I also NEVER placed the carseat in the correct position in the car without correctly strapping it in, either. If I had to place the seat in the car temporarily but didn't have time that moment to strap it in properly, I placed it on the floor or upside down on the seat. I also never placed anything on top of my car while getting things situated.
It's a learning thing. Never place a child in the seat if you don't immediately buckle them in correctly.
So in that same vein, I can see a parent who doesn't always drop the child off, but often does, forgetting the child in the back seat.
I think my main objection to some of the discourse in this thread is that I don't believe it's a matter of roulette where everyone is equally susceptible. The..."it can happen to anyone" mantra just doesn't ring true (after all, it's really quite rare despite media hype). Some are more mindful and aware than others, and yeah, that makes it hard to understand how someone can completely forget that their own child is in the car. I've seem people in this thread try to compare it to driving off with a coffee cup on the top of the car, but people mentally prioritize things in a way that makes a child more important than a coffee cup.
I used to feel the same way that you do. But tragic mistakes can happen when a parent is tired, stressed out, not thinking clearly. Also, with the advent of laws requiring rear-facing carseats, it's unfortunately made it easier for parents to not see the child or hear the child, especially if the child fell asleep. I wish these laws on rear-facing seats would be repealed as there is considerable evidence that it's resulted in more deaths of children in hot cars.
I think my main objection to some of the discourse in this thread is that I don't believe it's a matter of roulette where everyone is equally susceptible. The..."it can happen to anyone" mantra just doesn't ring true (after all, it's really quite rare despite media hype). Some are more mindful and aware than others, and yeah, that makes it hard to understand how someone can completely forget that their own child is in the car. I've seem people in this thread try to compare it to driving off with a coffee cup on the top of the car, but people mentally prioritize things in a way that makes a child more important than a coffee cup.
I am not saying everyone is equally susceptible; I agree with you that some people are much more at risk than others. I don't think stating it could never happen to someone as very useful (unless that person is a savant), as all of these people this happened to probably felt it could never happen to them, and this isn't about poster A or B, but about spreading awareness/fostering discussion to reduce the incidence of this in the future.
My entire point is to try to combat the bafflement that so many are stating. People talking about the coffee cup are simply stating things can slip your mind which you wouldn't choose to have happen - obviously there is a clear difference in importance here. I mentioned seatbelts because I think that's a lot easier to wrap your mind around, and it also deals with something very important related to your kid. Major slip ups happen in all areas of life to all kinds of people, which is why there are checklists now for surgeons and for pilots, as so many people had the same bafflement as to how a wrong sided/wrong kind of surgery can happen with a top mind as a surgeon.
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