A 6-month-old boy died after being left for hours in a hot car in Louisiana, authorities said.

The baby was found dead in the backseat by his parent at about 5:46 p.m. Tuesday, according to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

When the parent went to pick up the baby from day care after work, they realized they forgot to drop him off at day care that morning, the sheriff’s office said.

  • ByteOnBikes
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    87
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Ah that article, that scared me shitless when I first read it while my wife was pregnant. A single “oops” that really doesn’t just fuck a person up, it ruins their entire life.

    “Death by hyperthermia” is the official designation. When it happens to young children, the facts are often the same: An otherwise loving and attentive parent one day gets busy, or distracted, or upset, or confused by a change in his or her daily routine, and just… forgets a child is in the car. It happens that way somewhere in the United States 15 to 25 times a year, parceled out through the spring, summer and early fall. The season is almost upon us.

    If you ever accidentally left food in the microwave for a few hours, this could be you with children.


    Anyways here’s the archive org link since the primary link is paywalled.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20240617002402/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

    • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      2 months ago

      Thinks back to the time I made a giant russet baked potato and forgot about it until the same time the next day when I reheated something from the fridge and wondered why it was still cold after several minutes on high… only to find the dried remains of a flayed potato hiding underneath a paper towel. I set the second plate on top of it without even realizing it was still in there.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        I once left a tomahawk steak in my backpack for 3 days. I even took it to the coffee shop with my laptop and never noticed it.

        R.I.P., it was on sale and I had no plan when I bought it. I bet it would have been good.

    • Infynis@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      2 months ago

      One of the many reasons I will not be having children. I forget my tea steeping like 80% of the time. I don’t need a life in my hands

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 months ago

        I hear you, but as a fellow scatterbrain, the solution is that your shoe goes next to the car seat before you load it. Or something else, but a shoe is pretty hard to forget.

        • Infynis@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          2 months ago

          “I’m sorry, officer, you see, this person on the Internet told me to put something important with the baby so I wouldn’t forget it, so I gave it my car keys, and now they’re both locked in the car!”

        • SeaJ@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 months ago

          We just have a mirror on the rear headrest. That way anytime I look in the rear view mirror I see her.

          • iheartneopets@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 months ago

            Aren’t mirrors not recommended because of the potential hazard of them shattering and piercing baby in a car accident? It’s why I don’t have one; I wonder if that’s why these other parents didn’t, either

            • SeaJ@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              2 months ago

              It doesn’t have to be a glass mirror. Any reflective material is fine and that can be done on fairly soft material. But yes, the hazard is a harder mirror becoming an additional projectile in a car crash a whacking the baby in the face.

    • Null User Object@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      If you ever accidentally left food in the microwave

      I’ve lost count of how many times. Now we have a microwave with a reminder beep that keeps going off every minute or so until you open the door. Best feature ever.