Another baby dies in a hot car, left there by her Grand Mother.

J

jimintoronto

Well-known Member
Could the solution be this easy.............Put your purse in the BACK SEAT ?

Women hardly ever go anywhere without their purse. I think we can agree on that ? How about this for a idea............Put your purse in the BACK SEAT, which would force you to actually LOOK in the back seat before you walk away from the vehicle ? link. https://nypost.com/2021/09/11/texas-1-year-old-girl-dead-left-in-sweltering-hot-car-for-10-hours/ Simple idea. Would it help the number of kids who die in hot cars ? Perhaps. What do you think ? JimB.
 

There was a newspaper story here in town probably close to 40 years ago about an officer who saw a car pull out of a parking lot with a baby in a carseat sitting on top of the car. Not wanting to scare the driver, he slowly pulled up behind her and put on his flashers.

She pulled over, he got out of his car and approached her window. "Good morning, ma'am. Do you know where your baby is?"

She screamed and dove out of the car. She had taken the baby/carseat out of her shopping cart and had temporarily put it on top of the car while she unloaded her cart. Then, she forgot about the baby..... How it managed to stay on the cartop when she turned out of the lot is a miracle.

I never read any more about the incident, so I don't know if she was charged with anything.
 
jimintoronto said:
Would it help the number of kids who die in hot cars ? Perhaps. What do you think ?
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Maybe, certainly worth a try. But in the end its hard to fix stupid.

The rental car I had in Florida had a warning that someone could be in the back seat. It came on when shutting the car down, if there was any weight on the back seat. Seemed like a reasonable thing, but I quickly learned to ignore it. Set off by my luggage or most anything else on the seat.
 

My husband & I talk about this every time we hear of a tragedy like this. :cry:
@Alligatorob you hit the nail on the head, but we say "You can't fix stupid". They just keep doing idiotic things over & over.

How in the H#LL do you forget you put the baby is in the back seat? Even if the other half, put the kid in the back, how do you not know the child is there. Car seats are easily seen since there are so large.

No, Jim I think it wouldn't make a difference. Sometimes I think there are people who shouldn't have kids. How they manage to stay alive themselves at times amaze me. :eek:o_O
 
Lilac said:
My husband & I talk about this every time we hear of a tragedy like this. :cry:
@Alligatorob you hit the nail on the head, but we say "You can't fix stupid". They just keep doing idiotic things over & over.

How in the H#LL do you forget you put the baby is in the back seat? Even if the other half, put the kid in the back, how do you not know the child is there. Car seats are easily seen since there are so large.

No, Jim I think it wouldn't make a difference. Sometimes I think there are people who shouldn't have kids. How they manage to stay alive themselves at times amaze me. :eek:o_O
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yep I agree..I've sounded off about this before on this forum. I don't agree that people can easily forget a baby or small child in the back seat of a car... have you ever heard of a baby being left in a car when it's raining..nope.. always when its super hot.. and the child is bound to die... it makes me furious!!
 
Lilac said:
My husband & I talk about this every time we hear of a tragedy like this. :cry:
@Alligatorob you hit the nail on the head, but we say "You can't fix stupid". They just keep doing idiotic things over & over.

How in the H#LL do you forget you put the baby is in the back seat? Even if the other half, put the kid in the back, how do you not know the child is there. Car seats are easily seen since there are so large.

No, Jim I think it wouldn't make a difference. Sometimes I think there are people who shouldn't have kids. How they manage to stay alive themselves at times amaze me. :eek:o_O
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This bit about "kids dying in a hot car " is right up there with the "three year old shoots one year old with Mum's hand gun ". IN that case the Mum should be charged with Criminal Negligence Causing Death. Or the Dad, or whatever idiot allowed it to happen. With a semi auto pistol, how does a small child KNOW how to release the safety device ? Well of course if it wasn't ON SAFETY in the first place....... Kids COPY what they see Adults doing. JimB.
 
One place I worked used to have police come out and give safety talks. They discussed babies left in hot cars and said that the parents aren't stupid or bad, and that assuming you wouldn't do it is wrong. They said a lot of time there was some change in routine such as one parent usually taking the kid to daycare but on the fatal day the other parent was taking it. They said reminders like leaving your purse or briefcase in the backseat was helpful. But that in any case that we should not automatically vilify parents that forgot their baby.
 
At first I thought it sounded like a brilliant idea to put their purse in the back seat but...no...because no one thinks it's going to happen to them. No loving mother is EVER going to say to themselves, "I think I might leave my child in the car".

I do think it's possible to do it unintentionally because of many mental health reason. What if they have Attention Deficit Disorder? What if their medication or diet is causing brain fog or being confused.

@helenbacque ,I think you have something there....put the seats in the front seat where the mothers can see them.
 
maybe it is just me but i never have been so busy and i had 3 small kids to not know they were with me in car. While i understand the item about not in their routine i was always more aware when doing anything different. It is scary so many seem to operate their lives on Auto-pilot

the ideas while well meaning is not a one size fits all solution.... some people have payment options on phone and i see many women without a purse...and as others pointed out there are ways to work around or learn to ignore monitors or alarm.

since people are so attached to phone leave that in car seat. I am not blaming but i look in my car as i get out when parking and look close before getting in as well..... Like any other SAFETY precaution or practice it takes time to make it a habit.
 
CallMeKate said:
That's one of the things your Canadian government suggests to stop the hot car deaths of children in Canada. I hadn't realized it was such an issue there, too. It boggles that anyone should *have* to give themselves a reminder that there's a child in the car!
https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transportation/dangers-hot-vehicles-children
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Fortunately in Canada we don't have a problem with small children shooting themselves or a sibling with a hand gun. It is VERY difficult to get a permit to own one here, and the strict regulations are effective to wards preventing such things happening here. No one in Canada EXCEPT a on duty Police officer, a on duty Armored truck guard, or a on duty member of the Canadian Armed Forces can carry a hand gun in public, in Canada. Hand gun owners can ONLY transport their hand gun in a locked gun case, directly TO AND FROM a registered gun range. At home the hand gun must be locked in a gun safe, with a trigger lock on it. Ammunition must be locked in another safe. In other words, in Canada you cannot carry a hand gun anywhere in public. Rifles and shotguns are also regulated, and if ANY member of the license applicant's family objects to the firearm application, the application is rejected. Same thing goes for those who have a prior criminal conviction for assault or domestic violence who try to get a firearms permit in Canada. JimB.
 
jimintoronto said:
Fortunately in Canada we don't have a problem with small children shooting themselves or a sibling with a hand gun.
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Okay... but we're talking about the children left in hot cars in Canada (which is what the link was that I pasted.) Also, curious about why you mentioned a "purse" in the back seat when just as many men leave babies in cars. Where did guns enter the conversation? You're the OP of this, and there's nothing about guns at all. 🤷‍♀️
 
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Lara said:
At first I thought it sounded like a brilliant idea to put their purse in the back seat but...no...because no one thinks it's going to happen to them. No loving mother is EVER going to say to themselves, "I think I might leave my child in the car".

I do think it's possible to do it unintentionally because of many mental health reason. What if they have Attention Deficit Disorder? What if their medication or diet is causing brain fog or being confused.

@helenbacque ,I think you have something there....put the seats in the front seat where the mothers can see them.
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CallMeKate said:
Okay... but we're talking about the children left in hot cars in Canada (which is what the link was that I pasted.) Also, curious about why you mentioned a "purse" in the back seat when just as many men leave babies in cars. Where did guns enter the conversation? Oh... I forgot you're the OP of this, and there's nothing about guns at all. 🤷‍♀️
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I was comparing the gun death situation in the USA, where little kids shoot themselves, or a sibling with a hand gun. Both the death by gun and the death by heat in the USA involve adult negligence. The chances of a child in Canada shooting themselves with a hand gun are near zero. That was my point. AS much as you may not like to have it pointed out, the USA is awash in guns, and many kids have died because of that fact. Of all the words that I wrote.....You fastened on "purse " as something important ? JimB.
 
jimintoronto said:
You fastened on "purse " as something important ? JimB.
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You had it in the title of this post, Jim. This is the thread about children being left in hot cars. You started the thread. I shared a link with you from the Canadian government about how to avoid some of those car deaths. You wondered about a purse in the back seat. Then we're onto .... guns? Oh well, not mine to figure out, but I hope everything's okay with you.
 
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jimintoronto said:
Women hardly ever go anywhere without their purse. I think we can agree on that ? How about this for a idea............Put your purse in the BACK SEAT, which would force you to actually LOOK in the back seat before you walk away from the vehicle ? link. https://nypost.com/2021/09/11/texas-1-year-old-girl-dead-left-in-sweltering-hot-car-for-10-hours/ Simple idea. Would it help the number of kids who die in hot cars ? Perhaps. What do you think ? JimB.
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According to the article, it was the child's mother, not grandmother, who neglected to bring her into the daycare center.

Putting a purse in the back seat or back floor probably wouldn't help much - rare is the person who'd open the back door to retrieve it. Most of us simply reach back and grab our purses when getting out of the car.
Jeni said:
maybe it is just me but i never have been so busy and i had 3 small kids to not know they were with me in car. While i understand the item about not in their routine i was always more aware when doing anything different. It is scary so many seem to operate their lives on Auto-pilot

the ideas while well meaning is not a one size fits all solution.... some people have payment options on phone and i see many women without a purse...and as others pointed out there are ways to work around or learn to ignore monitors or alarm.

since people are so attached to phone leave that in car seat. I am not blaming but i look in my car as i get out when parking and look close before getting in as well..... Like any other SAFETY precaution or practice it takes time to make it a habit.
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@Jeni, it only takes one screw-up for there to be a tragedy.

I can easily imagine myself wrangling the two older children, intending to go back for the sleeping baby, then being distracted by a conversation with someone at the daycare center and moving ahead with my day, mentally checking the daily routine of going to daycare off my list.

Good idea to connect the action with a cellphone, but perhaps not putting it in the carseat itself because babies are fascinated by cellphones. Maybe velcro a small cellphone pocket (like a sunglasses sleeve) under the carseat. As you said though, it takes time to develop the habit.
 

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