Kids still being left behind in cars and it must stop
But tragedies not always cut and dried
In May of last year, Shaun Pennell drove to work and parked his car. His day was normal until 5:15, when his life blew apart forever. He had forgotten to drop off Wyatt, his threeyear-old son, at daycare on his way to work. The child died of hyperthermia.
Initially charged with failing to supply the necessaries of life and negligence causing death, Pennell pleaded guilty to the first and the second charge was dropped. Last month a judge gave him an absolute discharge. The judge did the right thing.
Last July in B.C., police broke a window to rescue two youngsters, aged three and five. This was at a shopping mall, with the car parked in the full sun.
“When our officer arrived on scene, he discovered the children trapped in the hot vehicle sweating profusely, crying, and with bright red faces,” Delta police spokesperson Cris Leykauf told a reporter. The father showed up 10 minutes later, and police recommended charges. I hope he goes to jail. There is no easy way to approach this subject, no way that doesn’t inflame those so certain it could never happen to them, and no way to change minds of those who have closed them. In the U.S., more than 36 children will die this year in a hot car. While statistics are not available for Canada, it will probably be three or four.
While the southern States provide the most-deadly settings, soaring temperatures in Canadian summer mean we must remain as vigilant. One American government study found “infants and children in states that experience mild winter temperatures face the threat of vehicular hyperthermia disability and death across the calendar year.” Death can happen in as little as two hours.
How does it happen? How can I be so convinced in my judgment of the two cases noted above? Because there are three ways children become trapped in cars, and only one has anything to do with the actions of the child.
There are cases where a child has gone to play in an unlocked vehicle, and as the temperature rises and heat stroke sets in, they can end up dying from hyperthermia. Children heat up internally two to three times faster than an adult; their thermostats are less-effective. The temperature inside a closed vehicle goes up incredibly fast: We did an experiment that saw it double from 26C to 52C in one hour.
The other two scenarios are very different from that — and from each other. Some would argue they are not dissimilar, but they are. If you leave your child in a car to go to a casino, get your hair done, or go shopping, you should be charged. You don’t leave any living creature in a vehicle unattended unless they are safely able to get themselves out, and be safe in the vehicle’s surroundings. An 11-year-old playing on his phone while you run in to get milk? Sure. A six-year-old? No. A baby? Never.
The injury or death of any child is searing, and anyone who can be held accountable should be. But children left behind in cars is not cut and dried. To prevent it, agencies and manufacturers must start by figuring out how it can happen. If half of the deaths occur not because a parent or caregiver intentionally left the child in the car, then what happens?
It’s a relatively recent phenomenon, usually traced to the time that children’s car seats were required to be facing rearward and to be in the back seat. Safety studies prove the longer they can face rearward, the better. But facing rearward also makes it easier to forget they’re there, especially if they fall asleep.
“How can you forget your own baby?” you say. “I’d never do that.” Except it could happen to you, because it could happen to anyone. Google Fatal Distraction, the Pulitzer Prize-winning piece by Gene Weingarten. If you can get through it without sobbing, there’s probably something broken inside you.
It can happen to anyone, because it’s about the way our brains are wired, not whether we’re good parents.
Most of us have our routines: Get up at the same time, shower, get the kids ready, have breakfast, drop the kids off at school or daycare, get to work, park and head in for our eight hours. It’s in the aberration from that rote schedule that things can go haywire; make a different stop before the daycare drop, or you take the kids one day instead of your partner. This small change can create the circumstances that can fatally hollow out a family.
Weingarten’s piece goes into the science behind this — science, not criminality. It’s not about self-absorbed people playing with their phones. It’s not about people who don’t love their children. It’s about the crushing realization that you will pay for the rest of your life in a way far harsher than any jail cell.
That judge was right. The Pennells will never know peace, but I hope they know there is understanding.