"Miles Harrison, 49, was an amiable person, a diligent businessman and a doting, conscientious father until the day last summer -- beset by problems at work, making call after call on his cellphone -- he forgot to drop his son, Chase, at day care. The toddler slowly sweltered to death, strapped into a car seat for nearly nine hours in an office parking lot in Herndon in the blistering heat of July. It was an inexplicable, inexcusable mistake, but was it a crime? That was the question for a judge to decide." - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo from Bookmarklet

Tragic article; not for the squeamish. - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

"What kind of person forgets a baby? The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the last 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. An accountant. A soldier. A paralegal. An electrician. A Protestant clergyman. A rabbinical student. A nurse. A construction worker. An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist." - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

And now some items from Rachel Sarnoff, director of the Children's Pre-School Center, regarding prevention: "Several products are available to remind a parent if a child remains in a car seat after the car is turned off. One of the more popular is Cars-N-Kids Car Seat Monitor, which turns on upon sensing a child's weight and sounds a lullaby when the car has stopped; it retails for about $40 and is available online." - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

She continues: "KidsAndCars.org <http://www.KidsAndCars.org>, an advocacy group for child vehicle safety, urges some basic measures to prevent the tragedy of children being inadvertently left in vehicles: 1) Always put something you'll need for work -- cellphone, handbag, employee badge, etc. -- on the floor of the back seat, near the child. - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

2) Keep a large teddy bear in the child's car seat when it's not occupied. When the child is placed in the seat, put the teddy bear up front in the passenger seat. It's a visual reminder that anytime the teddy bear is in the passenger seat, the child is in the back. - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

3) Make arrangements with your child's day-care provider or babysitter that you will always call them if your child will not be there on a particular day as scheduled. Ask them to always phone you if your child does not show up when expected." - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

Sorry for the downer stuff. I'm shaky just reposting this. (Such a wimp now.) Now I'll hit "like" on 5 cute and fluffy things as penance. - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

It's a really good article, and a very important topic. It is really sad though. - Georgia

(Two months go by, bump.) Georgia pointed me to a recent case of this in the Bay Area: A four month old was left in car by the dad. Such a tragedy when this happens. I'd never be able to forgive myself. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin... - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

If incarceration is intended as a deterrent and a correctional agent then it's pointless to imprison these parents. Clearly they're devastated by the loss and no amount of jail time would make them less likely to do it again, nor would the threat of jail time prevent another parent from making the same mistake. "Do something wrong, go to jail" is a common view in the United States, but not one that's shared globally. - Kevin Fox

I completely agree with you Kevin. These parents are already punished enough. Thanks Stephen for bringing this article back to life. I think it's so tragic what happened, and I too, would never be able to forgive myself... - Georgia

(9 month bump) Gene Weingarten won a Pulitzer today for this story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn... "Among The Post's winners, Gene Weingarten, who received the feature writing award for his story on parents who accidentally killed their children by leaving them in cars, said he came close to doing the same thing with his daughter 25 years ago." - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

(5 month bump) Bumping due to WoH's post about a recent tragic recurrence in Texas, http://friendfeed.com/worldof... - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

(2 year bump due to Spidra posting it today -- http://friendfeed.com/spidra... -- wanted to get some visibility for the prevention tips from Rachel S.) - Stephen Mack #TeamMomo

Not sure how I missed this originally but was lead to it from a local news article about an almost tragedy yesterday. Found it very hard to finish without getting a little wet around the eyes. - ronin

First time I saw it as well, ronin. Maybe the solution is to focus on only one task at a time. If you're supposed to drop off your child then that should be the main focus. Work will just have to wait. - Stephan Planken from iPhone

I read somewhere that this started happening more after parents started being required to place the car seats in the back, out of sight. - Betsy #TeamMonique