Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Imagine for a second that this story was exactly the same (outcome and everything) but instead of forgetting baby in car the baby was forgotten at home.
I bet the parent would be charged with neglect and all sorts of things. But for some reason "in the car" changes things.
This topic is so sad and infuriating.
I totally understand the parent's stories and how it happened to them but yet I don't. Maybe IF the penalties were consistent and stiff.....the thoughtless autopilot like process that happens wouldn't happen. I don't know.
A child dying is just so awful. They didn't even get a chance...
The sloughing off of responsibility though stuns me. Not only in this type of situation but alot of parent situations.
Take Bode Miller for example....his 19 month old DD drowned recently. The headline yesterday? Bode Miller wants to know why he wasn't informed about the dangers of drowning by his child's pediatrician. 
Really?
I so get the auto pilot thing-has happened twice to me in the last month. With in 30 seconds of getting in my car I totally spaced where I needed to be going and went the way I usually went. Thankfully I didn't have a child in the car but it shows even someone like me who doesn't have little ones can go auto pilot forgetting where they should be going.
I think even with stiff penalties, the auto pilot would kick in, especially with a change in scheduling.
I had to do a paper last term on how to educate parents more on the dangers of smoking and drinking while pregnant and where to post the information. These kind of warnings have been happening forever! If parents don't want to listen or think it can't happen to them, they won't take the information in.
If an Olympic athlete does not know the dangers of a pool around a child, how much more can one be educated.