Hot cars and child deaths

I first wrote this blog as a FB post back in 2016.

It highlights a few things about autos, the culture of death and oppression which surrounds them, and how the media doesn’t help. Or worse, is used to incite a public, which often doesn’t resort to critical thinking skills. Some of these things I wrote about and others, I would like to elaborate more on here.

Here is the original post.

Since 1998 there has been an average of 38 child heatstroke deaths per year. A total of 682 children have died from being forgotten in a hot car in 18 years.

Parents were forced by auto manufacturers to place their child in the backseat. But that is only part of the problem. A contributing factor is the child seat itself. It is designed to almost entirely obstruct your view of the child from the drivers seat.

Take a moment to get in your car and do this exercise. With the canopy up, to shade your child from direct sunlight (like a good parent would do), sit in the drivers seat and without turning your shoulders look to the passenger rear of the car and determine how much of your child you can see.

This was something which struck me as a parent. I noticed that I could not see my child in the rear seat/child safety seat from the drivers position. Not even if I moved my shoulders for a full upper body twist.

Out of sight, out of mind.

This happens to parents who change their routine or are going through a troubled marriage. It can also happen to people who work swing shift, grave yard shift, change their work shift, change their routine, attending school and working part/full time. All of these things happen and add exhaustion from taking care of newborn/infant/toddler and you have a recipe for disaster.

What can you do?

The first thing we do is deflect responsibility away from the auto manufactures and the child safety seat manufacturers. Since this is part of our human nature I’ll address it first.

If you have a laptop, purse, cell phone, briefcase, and etc. Put it in the back seat next to your child’s car seat. Don’t leave it on the front passenger seat. Put it next to your child. This is enough of a routine change that even if you walk into your work without your items, you’ll remember (hopefully in time) to go back and get your things and see your child.

From a legal and safety standpoint, that’s all you can do.

What auto manufactures and car seat manufactures can do.

These are the real culprits. Not the parents. Not even if they are sending lewd pictures from work while going through a divorce.

The reason you are forgetting your child is because you’re zoned out while driving and your view of child is blocked. What auto manufacturers can do is put a child sensor under the child’s car seat. We have the technology to do this. It can be an after market product with a weight bearing sensor. You know how much your child weighs, program it in. When you turn off your car a child in back seat bell goes off and a sensor flashes. You are reminded that your child is in the back seat. Much like the seat belt warning signal tells you to put on your seat-belt.

Very few parents are charged in infant heatstroke deaths. The reason being that they are largely unintentional. Only 17% are considered intentional. In 83% of these cases it is parental forgetfulness. We only have those children who are reported dead. We don’t see the near misses. I’m certain that there is a proportionally higher number of those than we realize.

What can we do proactively to get such technology introduced to autos?

End Child Heatstroke Deaths and stop blaming parents.
Parents stop blaming yourselves. It’s the manufacturers fault. (Note from 2108: I should have said Auto companies fault.)

What do I mean? “It’s the manufacturers fault.” How can an auto company be held accountable for a parent leaving a child in the car and what is the medias role in this?

Anyway’s, that’s enough of me yammering at you and most of you are probably shell shocked after reading this. If you realize that you’re part of the problem but you don’t know how to get out of it, by which I mean you’re buying a product which kills and oppresses people, and you feel trapped into it (there are a lot of articles already written on this subject, google “how auto lobbyists changed our roads” and read them.)
But it’s not just the product that kills and oppresses, no, it is the people behind that product. The more you scratch, the more horrifying things you find. But I’ve yammered enough.

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