Here's the story:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/08/20/toronto-dead-houston.html?ref=rss

On the news (tv) they said that this was the 10th death this year that was the result of a young child being locked in a car in hot weather. Outrageously, the news anchorman suggested--as a method of prevention--putting something "important" on the seat next to the child so that you don't forget about him/her in the back seat. Honestly! What can be more important than your child!?

The parents should be charged with at a minimum child endangerment...preferably something a little more severe. Seeing the article, and living in Texas myself, at 100°F (it doesn't hit 100° in Houston as often as in Dallas due to humidity), it will get very hot inside. I'm surprised the inside was only 120°F...must have not been a dark colored car; if it was a darker color, it's not uncommon for the inside of a car to reach 150°F+.

The tv news showed an SUV that was black or a very dark green.

What i found odd was that
it happened at a home,
not a mall or other public place,
strange and sad.

It's amazing how very little it takes to distract people from what is SO important, at the moment. This is so sad.

How hot was it in their home place of Toronto at the time? No excuses, just wondering...

I don't think there is anything worse that the law could do than what this family is already doing to themselves.

According to the news article, they had to attend to the boy's big brother, who is autistic, and has to be fed to a strict schedule (not something I knew about), and bringing in the groceries, and just "lost track" of the 2yo. If they were visiting relatives, I'm surprised that nobody asked after the younger boy, or that it took them so long to do it.

I've only come across a child left in a car twice.

Once H and I went to pick Jonathan up from school, and we parked next to a car belonging to the family of one of his classmates. In the back seat was the classmate's two/three-year-old brother, harnessed into a child safety seat. He had undone the harness, wound down the window, and was in the process of climbing out.

I caught him, and waited for his mother. She said his behaviour was so appalling that she was ashamed to be seen with him in public, but she always took him with her after that.

The other time, the weather might have been an issue, but because it was very cold. Jonathan and I were walking through a supermarket car park, when we spotted a baby inside a soft-top sports car. We gave customer services the registration number, and they put a call out for the owner of the car to come to the desk. Half an hour later, when she'd finished her shopping and was good and ready, mother came to customer services and rewarded them with a mouthful of abuse, in which the words "mind your own business" figured quite heavily.

On reflection, I'm sorry I involved customer services. If I could turn the clock back, I'd call the police.

This happened in Houston, TX...where it does get quite hot in August.

On a side note, I'm glad I have A/C, since it is 105° here in Dallas!

To me, the scary thing about this kind of thing is that I can very much understand how it happens.

I tend to go on autopilot when doing the same thing over and over - if I get in my car and start driving in the morning, I'll end up at work, even if I actually meant to go somewhere else. I can see forgetting that the baby is in the back seat, if the baby isn't usually there. I remember hearing of one case where dad was supposed to drop baby off at daycare on his way to work, which he didn't usually do. During the drive, he fell into his habitual rut, and just did what he always did, every morning - drove to work, parked the car, went to his job. Hours later, remembered the sleeping baby in the back. I could easily see myself doing exactly that, and it terrifies me.

In fact, I once did forget my daughter in the car - my husband and I were having some problems, and it was our first appointment with the marriage counselor. We dropped our son off at the drop-in daycare, but the baby was too young and had to stay with us. I didn't drive at the time, and my husband mostly worked out of town, so neither of us were used to having a kid in the car, and this was the first time we'd ever driven with just one child - it was either both of them or neither. We were sitting in the waiting room, both of us very agitated but trying not to show it, when I suddenly thought - wait a minute, where's the baby? Fast asleep in her car seat. It was only five minutes, but still.

I've never left a child in my car, but I HAVE forgotten where I parked it.
That's a combination which makes me shiver...

Parenting a child with Autism is exhausting. They obviously weren't firing on all cylinders and a dreadful tragedy has been the consequence.
Mate of mine put his two year old in the car to go down to the shops. He was driving down his road when an elderly neighbour, cutting his hedge, suddenly threw down the trimmer and yelled.
Then sprinted down the road after the car still yelling and waving.
So my mate stopped.
He then found out that, as a consequence of newborn-induced exhaustion, he had put the baby seat on the roof with his 6 week old in it, strapped the two year old carefully into his baby seat inside the car and then got in and driven off, having forgotten he was now a father of two.
Baby was fine.
Being manly men there were no hysterics, just a bit of bluff
"Didn't know I could still run like a young 'un" and such like exchanges.
Mate said that he lived in a state of terror for years after that, he couldn't believe that he'd done something so insane. His wife coped better than him, she knew what true exhaustion does to you.

Indeed it is.



I constantly worry that something awful will happen; we have had a few close calls. Though as a previous poster said, there is nothing the law can do to this family that is worse than what they will do to themselves.

Something else I didn't appreciate.

Once when I was under a bit of pressure I put Jonathan's flute on the car roof, and forgot about it before we drove home. Perhaps there's not much difference between a flute and a small child, when your brain has to be in a hundred places at once.

I think one of the SUVs has a warning device in it to prevent this terrible thing from occurring.

I also cringe at the idea as I occasionally ferry children around and the pure logistics involved in taking one kid to one place then, another, with a younger child in the car is terrifying. I know that it never happened to me with my own two, but with a few more in the car, it could.