Infant and Toddler Car Safety

While I was on my road trip in Oregon, two incidents occurred back here in Georgia that I didn't learn about until my return, and that's why this column is delayed in the writing and posting.

On June 18 in Atlanta a toddler died from heat exhaustion after being left in his carseat  in the back seat of his father's car while the father went to work.  The details of the death are still being uncovered, and the father has been charged with murder.

One day later, here in Augusta a woman left her infant in her car while she went into a college to take final exams.  Fortunately, someone discovered the child and called 911.  Thanks to the alertness and quick action of that other student, the baby was rescued and suffered only minor dehydration.  The mother has been charged with willful neglect with more serious charges still pending.

Regardless of the grisly implications of these cases, it is not unusual for several infant and toddler deaths to occur every year during our summer months due to their being inadvertently left in the back of a car by a preoccupied parent who intended to drop the child off at a day care center on the way to work.  The results are most often fatal.

The laws for child restraint seats vary widely by state, and many do not require that the child be placed in the rear seat of the vehicle, but recommend rear seat if available.  It is common for the child to go to sleep while riding in the car.  If the parent takes a cell phone call or becomes otherwise distracted, it is all too easy to forget about the child;

out of sight-out of mind when there is no interaction between the adult and the child.

The "rear seat restraint," whether required or only recommended, is a problematic when the child is not yet old enough to speak or when it goes peacefully to sleep out of sight of the adult.  We live in a busy world and we try to multi-task, often unsuccessfully.  There has to be some way to set an alarm that prevents us from neglecting that quiet munchkin in the back seat. 

Well, I'm please to say that there is such an alarm, and it is very easy to arm it.

First of all, never go anywhere with a child in the back seat without placing some object that you MUST RETRIEVE when you get to your ultimate destination in the rear seating area.  For most women, that will be a purse, which you always carry with you.  Men are more likely to have tools, a uniform hat, a briefcase, or some other essential item they cannot do without.  Whatever it is that you designate as your 'alarm', make sure that you place that in the back seat out of the child's reach.  If you get in the habit of alarming the car in this fashion, the chance of disaster is reduced to zero.  There might be that day when you get to work late, because you had to turn around and go back to drop the kid off, but that beats the alternative.

I know that many, if not most of you to whom I send this weekly column are not in the child-rearing years.  You don't have infants or toddlers, but I'll bet you have some grand children who you love very much.  That means that you must share this column with your own children and anyone else you know who has children of that  age.  Let's make this summer one that is disaster-free on the car seat tragedy news.