BLOG: Tips to Avoid Tragedy

Every summer we hear stories about parents accidentally leaving a child in the hot car for hours. Forty-nine children died of heat stroke in cars in 2010. There are already five reported deaths this year.

When I first started hearing these stories, I thought "how could a parent forget to drop their child off at daycare, drive to their place of employment, get out of the car and walk into the building all while not noticing the child in the back seat?" Hours later, the parent either remembers that they did not drop their child off at daycare or they return to their car at the end of the work day and discover their dead child.

When I questioned this behavior with friends who are parents, most say they could see how it happens. Sometimes a parent is on auto pilot and a change in the routine of who takes the child to daycare might not even hit them until it is too late. Or a newborn baby has kept them up all night and they are exhausted and don't realize the now sleeping baby in the back seat.

And the more I thought about it, I could see how it could happen. Haven't we all driven a distance and have no recollection of the landmarks we passed or what roads we took? But we probably remembered most of the songs we heard on the radio.

My heart goes out to all the parents who have had to deal with this horrible tragedy. Kidsandcars.org offers tips for parents of how they can avoid accidentally leaving their child in the car, along with other car safety tips. If you are a parent of a young child, please consider following one of these tips to help you avoid a tragedy.