Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime? ⇒
9 March 2009, mid-afternoon
And this comment by Scrump over at MetaFilter is worth a read as well. Update: I should add that the article is all kinds of depressing and horrific. So you might want to pass on this. This link was found via MetaFilter.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
Can this all have been avoided if we have better transit system and walkable communities? Maybe if these parents were taking public transit then it would be harder to make the same kind of mistake.
When I was 2, my caretaker forgot me at a fish market in Hong Kong. A few hours later, a cop found me and took me to the station. Maybe I would have been dead if this occurred in a car sitting in a parking lot in suburban North York.
by tiff on March 9 2009, 8:21 pm #
When I was one or so, my aunt forgot me between bed sheets for a few hours.
by sh!ma on March 10 2009, 9:38 am #
The brain tends to function on patterns. Maybe people get so caught in their daily routines that parenting also becomes routine, and it shouldn’t. I’m a firm believer that we need to ‘switch things up’ now and again just to keep the mind more alert.
by stacy on March 10 2009, 3:31 pm #
I think the article is trying to make the case that this happens 25 times a year, and unless you are being willfully negligent, it is basically bad luck if it happens to you. And that we as humans are conditioned to find this unbelievable because that challenges the model we build of the world around us. There are all sorts of lapses in judgement people make during the day. Most of the times this doesn’t end in tragedy so we filter them out.
by ramanan on March 10 2009, 4:55 pm #