I think about Andres Sierra almost every time I get into a hot car.
I did not know the little boy who, 12 days shy of his fourth birthday, died after being left for three hours in a car seat inside an SUV parked outside his father's dentist office.
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Twenty minutes after
I think of Andres less by name than by circumstance. My stomach tightens when I consider the details of his undoubtedly panicked death July 15, 2004, a year ago last Friday.
I consider my own son, a toddler, and how quickly sweat beads on the bridge of his teeny nose just seconds after I plop him in a sun-heated car seat.
I consider my own moments of exhaustion, absent-mindedness, disorganization, clumsiness, distraction and, oh, sleep-deprived, fear-driven angst ? conditions I can blame, often exclusively and with only a tinge of exaggeration, on parenting.
Recognizing personal responsibility while acknowledging imperfection, I avoid "I would never do that" judgments. I realize "That could never happen to me" is as much a prayer as a promise. I don't comfortably or consistently judge parents for their mistakes. Accidentally causing your child's death has got to yield a psychological and emotional punishment harsher than the public could issue or any loving parent's heart could handle.
Filled with sadness, outrage or both, reasonable people will disagree with the varying, uneven penalties courts mete out for crimes of negligence. But there should be easy agreement on efforts to help prevent such negligence.
The "Cameron Gulbransen Kids and Cars Safety Act of 2005" would require safety devices in automobiles, including: power windows that automatically reverse if, for example, a child's body part is in its path; cameras or radars to detect a person's presence behind a vehicle; and a reminder system that sends an alarm to the driver's key ring, for example, if the driver leaves the vehicle with a child still in a car seat.
Introduced as a House bill in May for the second time in as many years by Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., HR 2230 is named in memory of a 2-year-old from New York whose father, driving an SUV, accidentally backed over him in 2002. It as easily could have been named in Andres Sierra's memory. Or in memory of 3 1/2 -month-old Mackenzee Hynes of Inverness, who also died in July of last year, left behind in a hot car after her father drove her to his job north of Tampa rather than to her day care. Or for any of the 230 children who from 1998 through 2004 died from hyperthermia after being left in hot cars.
Another 250 children or more, according to the Kansas-based child safety organization KIDS AND CARS, were backed over and killed from 2002 to 2004. Nearly 7,500 more, according to a February report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were treated in hospital emergency rooms from 2001 to 2003 after surviving being backed over by a vehicle.
Despite predictable opposition from car manufacturers, the legislation should not be allowed to die again in a congressional committee. The technology is available, and widely installed in European cars but not in most cars marketed in the
No, the technology is not foolproof and won't magically eliminate forgetfulness. No, it does not replace vigilance, caution and attentiveness. It does not absolve drivers and caregivers of responsibility.
Improved standards can help save lives. That's a priceless value for a minimal cost.