27th Child Has Died In A Hot Car This Year, Is Preventing Children From Being In The Front Seat To Blame?

According to Dallas Morning News, a seven-month-old baby from Texas has become the 27th child to die from being left in a hot car. This seven-month-old baby from Texas was forgotten in his SUV on Friday in the parking lot of a suburban San Antonio Wal-Mart while his father worked his nine-hour shift at the Helotes store. The father told Helotes police Capt. Anthony Burgess he forgot to drop his son off at daycare before driving to work for his nine-hour shift.

The baby was forgotten in the back of his father’s SUV from 6:15 a.m. to 3:09 p.m., which was when the father came out of his work and discovered he had forgotten the child in the back seat of his vehicle. The police and fire department responded to the Texas father’s frantic plea for help.

Emergency responders did report the father appeared to be in distress over learning he had forgotten his son in the vehicle, the Daily Mail reports.

The father of the Texas baby who died in the hot car was taken to a hospital after he was reported to have chest pain and trouble breathing. Officials on the scene claim the father was cooperating with the police up until the point where he locked up. Officials believe this was due to the shock of what had happened to his baby.

At this time, there have not been any charges filed against the father who forgot his baby in the back of the SUV for 9-hours. The identity of the Texas father and child have also yet to be released. According to Daily Mail, temperatures in the area hovered around 100 degrees for a large portion of the afternoon.

As stated previously, the death of this baby from Texas brings the total of children who have died in the U.S. in a hot car to at least 27. This is also the sixth child to die from being left in a hot car in the state of Texas. By comparison, there were 25 children who died while left in hot cars last year.

Just ten days ago, on August 4, there were twin 15-month-old girls who died after being found in the back seat of a hot SUV that was parked in front of a duplex in Georgia. When emergency responders arrived to the devastating scene in Georgia, they discovered people holding the bodies of the twin girls in water with ice packs in order to try to cool them off and revive them.

It was in the 1990s when the number of children died from being left in a vehicle took a sharp increase. It was around the same time laws were passed requiring parents to place young children in the back seat in order to prevent children being injured or killed when the airbag deploys. The theory behind the increase is simple. Before the law was passed, it was impossible to forget your child was in the car if he/she was in the front passenger seat.

According to Janette Fennell, founder and president of Kids And Cars, a national child safety nonprofit based in Philadelphia, drivers became less aware of their children being in the vehicle when they started strapping them into the backseat instead of the front.

Daily Mail reports the temperature inside of a parked vehicle can reach 119 degrees after sitting in the sun on a 90-degree day. In an hour, that same car will reach 133 degrees.

Do you think parents should be punished when they forget their child in a hot car and the child dies? What do you think about some trying to place blame on the law which prevents parents from putting their children in the front seat? Are parents really that forgetful while driving?

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