Google informs me that 38 children a year die from being left in hot cars. I’ve mentioned that fact to people in my life before, and their reactions are what I would expect. Something like, “Yeah, isn’t it awful?” Google even feels the need to remind me that, “Even the best of parents or caregivers can unknowingly leave a sleeping baby in a car; and the end result can be injury or even death.” This excruciating article warns us that even the best parents could leave their child in a broiling car. “My heart breaks for the 15 families who have lost children to the heat so far this year and the more than 650 who have done so in recent decades.”
This sounds like social desirability bias to me because my point was that it isn’t that awful. Only 38 children a year? That shouldn’t even be a blip on any serious account of risk. 650 over the course of decades?!! Are you kidding me?!!
The counterfactual of course, is taking your child out of the car, where there are 4 – 5 thousand pedestrian fatalities in traffic crashes. Many of those are children, certainly a lot more than 38. One person told me that any number of deaths are too many, even 38. But children die if you do and they die if you don’t, and the idea that you should be willing to pay anything to reduce the risk to your child is insane.
The temptation is to neglect the denominator of these two metrics: 38 kids dying in cars, and 4 – 5 thousand dying outside of them. The truth is that far fewer parents leave their kids in cars, especially these days when the whole culture is too emotional to think straight about the issue. Fewer than 38 kids probably die from being dangled from windows, that doesn’t mean its safe to dangle your child from a two story window. So while it might not actually be safer to leave your child in the car while you run an errand, it still might be a good idea and it certainly isn’t child neglect.
Which gets at my biggest concern. Parenting laws get enforced against what looks like bad parenting, not bad parenting. Parents get their children taken away and get put in jail for such things. Where’s the moral outrage for these people? No, leaving your child in a car should not land you in prison or get your child taken away. Simply driving your kid anywhere is the biggest risk of all. 9,000 children die in car accidents. Is that child neglect?
