Rant #1,727: Hot Car Deaths

Have you noticed that there appears to be more and more reports of hot car deaths this summer?

The latest is that two 15-month old twins were left in the car by a parent, and the excessively hot circumstances in the car killed these two innocent kids.

This is not the first report of such things happening this summer, and it seems every summer, we get reports about kids being left in cars in sweltering heat and not surviving.

But so far this summer, there seems to be far more reports of this, and I know that there probably isn't a solid reason for this, other than with the Internet in place, more of these bizarre happenings are being reported than ever before, and they are appearing on the Internet for everyone to see.

This is a phenomena, for lack of a better term, that I don't understand at all.

Some of those parents who have done this have pled that they forgot the kids were in the car; others kept them in the car because they decided they couldn't take them to work, or couldn't take them shopping with them.

Neither, of course, makes the least bit of sense, but in these parents' eyes, they were reasons for keeping the kids in the car on sweltering days--most of the times even without a crack in the window open to allow air to circulate in the car.

And to simply keep the kids in the car like this ... I don't get it.

I guess it is akin to putting the child seat on top of the car with the kid in it, and forgetting about it, and driving off, which does happen too, as you know.

It seems to be that the people who keep their kids in locked cars like this are deranged souls. It used to be that you heard a lot about people keeping their dogs in cars like this, which was bad enough, but now when you hear about kids frying in these incinerators, it really makes you sick to your stomach.

I remember a number of years ago. I went to a McDonalds by me for lunch, and when I came out with my food, I saw a little boy in a completely locked up car, all alone.

It was not the summer, it must have been fall, and not only wasn't he under any supervision in the car, this kid--he must have been no more than five years old or so, if even that--was untethered to any child seat. He was jumping around inside the car, and he looked really scared.

I went back into McDonalds and told a worker there about it, with the license plate number. Perhaps the person supposedly caring for this kid was in the restaurant, so I passed the word on and left.

I didn't stay to see if the kid was taken care of, and I should have, so I have no idea if anyone came out to take care of this kid.

It wasn't the summer, but this kid was in distress. How can you leave a child like this alone in a car?

And that is the thought I am going to leave you with right now.

Speak to you again on Monday. Have a good weekend.