it sounds easy, but dozens of parents forget each year, with tragic results
Parents who will wish their whole lives that they had the opportunity to live that one horrible moment over again are urging those who do have that opportunity to take advantage of it, and to get their kids out of hot cars as the mercury soars, 1200 WOAI's Joshua Cook reports.
"Getting simply out of a routine is easy," said Cindy Quinn of College Station, who's infant daughter Callie died when she was inadvertently left in the back of their hot vehicle back in 2001. "It happens to people all the time, and it did happen to us, and we lost a daughter."
Callie died of hypothermia after she was forgotten in the back of Cindy's vehicle on the way home from a typical hectic day that young parents experience every day.
National Transportation Safety Administrator David Strickland says the problem happens every summer, that people simply forget.
"We logged about 33 deaths that we know of from last year, but there are hundreds and hundreds of children that we know of who are left behind in hot cars and suffer injuries," he said.
He pointed out that an infant can die or suffer from irreversible brain damage far quicker than an adult when sitting in a hot place, because their little systems are still not fully acclimated to the heat. A child can begin suffering after only seconds inside a car on a day like this, when the temperature inside can quickly soar to 140 degrees.
"We never would have thought that something like this would ever have happened to us, but it did," Quinn said.
Strickland said one thing that busy parents can do is to leave your purse, cell phone, briefcase, or some other item that you routinely grab when getting out of the car in the back seat with the car seat, so you automatically turn around to get it and don't miss the child.
Some people suggest that parents place this items in the empty car seat when the baby is not in the car, so the idea of turning around to check out the back seat becomes routine every time you get out of the car.
