Here we go again...
Thursday, June 29, 2006
If it's summer, it's time for the horror stories of parents leaving babies in cars to fry. (Grand Forks Herald):
A 5-month-old baby died in a minivan Wednesday after the mother apparently forgot to drop the child off at day care.Almost 300 kids have died this way since 1998, according to a companion article in the same paper. The numbers are rising, they assert, because of airbags, the child seats are now in the rear seat of the car -- and parents forget.
..."The mother had forgotten to drop off the child at day care in the morning," said Curt Kreun, owner of Wonder Years 2. "She actually came in the building to pick up the child and then realized what had happened."
The child was in a car seat in the back of the vehicle, according to Sgt. Jeff Burgess of the Grand Forks Police Department. A Wonder Years 2 staff member made the 911 call, according to Kreun.
Even if you account for some babies being forgotten (39%), 25 percent of the fatalities were caused by a parent knowingly leaving them in the car while they ran an errand.
Help me out here -- these awful stories are run every year, telling people how fast temperatures rise to a deadly level in a car during the summer -- how does this keep happening?
From 2005:
* What is wrong with people -- child dies in hot car
* Woman Leaves Disabled Daughter in Hot Car at Shopping Mall.
Bonus:
* Woman Charged For Allegedly Driving With Children In Trunk
