How to stop parents from leaving kids in hot cars

Before I had a kid, I would have criticized Holli Platt for leaving her baby in a hot, locked car.

How could any loving, caring, attentive mother possibly forget her child?

Then you have one, and you realize that it’s disturbingly easy to accidentally leave the kid you love in the car. Particularly if you are distracted, out of your routine, sleep deprived — or maybe a combination of all three.

That’s why I won’t offer any harsh words for Platt, who police say left her baby in an un-running car for 18 minutes while shopping at a Chandler Target. She said she was distracted by her other three children, who were eager to buy things (I’ve been there).

When she learned her baby was in the car, she left the other three in Target and ran to the car (haven’t been there, but I can totally imagine).

The baby was crying with an elevated blood pressure but, thankfully, will be OK. And the four children were released to their father before Platt was booked into jail on suspicion of one count of child abuse.

In this case, the kids shouldn’t be stuck in the system because of a horrible mistake.

But it’s no less tragic.

A record 53 children died nationally in hot cars last year, along with another 32 so far this year, according to KidsandCars.org, a national nonprofit.

Forty kids have died in Arizona since 1990, according to the group. Only Texas, California and Florida have experienced more hot-car deaths than our state (and they have far larger populations than we do).

Even more telling, 82% of kids’ hotcar deaths were unintentional, according to the National Safety Council.

That’s the harsh reality. Parents are going to accidentally leave their kids in the car.

No amount of vigilance, education or even jail time will ever completely stop this phenomenon, not as long as there are distractions and hot cars that can make kids deathly ill in minutes.

Sure, there are memory tricks and habits parents can form to remind them to check the back seat before leaving the car. Putting a purse, briefcase or anything else you normally take with you can function as a reminder.

There also is technology that can alert parents when their memory fail-safes fail. That includes sensors in car-seat buckles that are connected to cellphone apps and rear-seat detection systems that some manufacturers have built into vehicles.

I know. Not everyone can afford this stuff, though there are rudimentary devices for less than $60. If we have no trouble spending $30 on a diaper-wipe warmer, it seems like adding a car-seat alarm to a baby shower list isn’t out of bounds.

Bills have been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House that would require car manufacturers to install warning systems in all vehicles, though there’s a debate over which technology is best — and whether boosting public awareness would be more effective.

I’m usually not one for government forcing companies to do things. Manufacturers also make a fair point when they say it would take 20 years for all cars on the road to have this technology, based on current turnover rates.

But if we can mandate backup cameras to avoid backing into people and putting children in the backseat to diminish airbag deaths — a phenomenon that has killed fewer kids per year than hot cars have — adding a few extra sensors doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

Does that absolve parents of their responsibility to keep their kids safe? No. But if it could lower the growing number of preventable deaths, it’s worth it.