In 2017, a court in Australia ruled to exempt a mother from criminal liability for accidentally leaving her child to die in a car. This decision was supported by expert testimony from a scientist who presented convincing evidence and arguments to the judge, stating that anyone could unintentionally forget a child in a vehicle, even the most responsible and attentive parents.
Therefore, if you consider yourself a responsible parent and think that because you are responsible, you could never forget your child in a car, the advice for you is: NEVER BE COMPLACENT!
Professor David Diamond, a leading expert in cognitive science and neurology at the University of South Florida, USA, said:
“People think that only irresponsible or extremely careless parents forget their children in cars. But that’s not true; it’s a situational issue. Anyone, in a certain context, can have the potential to forget a child in a vehicle.”
This is why, on average, in the United States, there are up to 37 cases of child deaths each year due to being forgotten in cars. This statistic translates to one tragic incident occurring every nine days.
In China, incomplete statistics reported in the media indicate that there are about 4-5 cases of child deaths in cars each year due to being forgotten. In Israel, the figure is 3-4 cases, while in Australia, it’s 2-3 cases. This is likely just the tip of the iceberg.
There is a syndrome called “Forgotten Baby Syndrome”
The ambulance service in Victoria receives over 1,900 calls each year related to children being forgotten in cars, with nearly 30 cases requiring medical attention at hospitals.
Including cases where children are rescued in time from locked vehicles, Scott Phillips, CEO of the nonprofit organization Kidsafe, stated that the number could exceed 5,000, and this is just for Australia.
The common occurrence of such accidents has led scientists like Professor Diamond, who has spent more than two decades listening to the tearful confessions of parents who accidentally forget their children in cars, to coin a specific term for it.
They call it: “Forgotten Baby Syndrome“
Forgotten Baby Syndrome is simply defined as the “phenomenon of forgetting a child in a parked vehicle,” according to research published in the National Institutes of Health library. But don’t let that simplicity deceive you.
Behind this seemingly absurd definition (Who can imagine forgetting their own child to death in a car?) lies an incredibly complex mechanism of brain function.
“I have studied the brain and human memory since the 1980s. I have spoken with many grieving parents. I have heard their painful recordings of calls to the hotline when their children were discovered dead. I realized that, in most cases, this is not an act of neglect or carelessness by the parents,” Professor Diamond stated.
“Based on my research and expertise as a neuroscientist and cognitive biologist, I have developed a hypothesis to explain why this tragedy can occur.”
Professor David Diamond, a leading expert in cognitive science and neurology at the University of South Florida, USA.
Professor Diamond’s hypothesis revolves around two concepts: First is “habitual memory” and second is “future memory.”
Habitual memory helps you perform tasks that are frequently repeated, such as remembering the route from home to work and driving from work to home.
Habitual memory also allows you to carry out many tasks in a sequence, unconsciously, without expending much energy. For example, when you pull your phone out of your pocket, unconsciously enter the password, find the Facebook app, tap on it, and start scrolling to kill time during a boring meeting.
Because habitual memory doesn’t expend much energy, the brain can reserve that energy for another type of memory. That is future memory.
This type of memory is associated with tasks you plan to do in the future, such as remembering to drop your child off at daycare when going to work, picking them up after work, and stopping by the supermarket on the way home.
Future memory often helps you accomplish tasks that you intend to do, requiring planning and energy investment.
No one plans to pull their phone out of their pocket, find the Facebook app, and start scrolling during a meeting. That’s habitual memory at work. However, when you know that the meeting will be boring, you plan to open Facebook to read a specific post you started. That’s future memory in action.
Habitual memory is processed in the basal ganglia, which manages unconscious actions, while future memory resides in the hippocampus, which stores information, and the prefrontal cortex, crucial for planning.
In the brain’s most alert state, these two types of memory operate completely independently of each other. Habitual memory is processed in the basal ganglia, managing unconscious actions, whereas future memory lies in the hippocampus, storing information, and the prefrontal cortex, essential for planning.
However, in many cases, habitual memory can override future memory, and this is what causes the tragedies of children being forgotten in cars.
Anyone Can Be Distracted
“The brain system responsible for habitual memory is a wonderful utility that allows us to switch to autopilot mode. The advantage of it in this state is that we no longer have to remember each task individually, but the problem is that it can manipulate our behavior. When habitual memory manipulates our behavior, it blocks other parts of the brain that are responsible for reminding us of additional information,” Professor Diamond explained.
Consider a specific example:
One day, while at work, you accidentally break your favorite mug. At that moment, you determine that after work, on your drive home, you will stop by the supermarket to buy a new mug. This is when your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are activated to run the program for future memory.
However, when you actually finish work and drive home, ironically, you forget to stop by the supermarket and drive straight home. This is when the basal ganglia activate your habitual memory, which overrides your future memory.
The result is that the next day, when you return to the office and see the broken mug still in the trash, you remember that you forgot to stop by the supermarket to buy a new mug.
We often encounter such similar situations in life. People tend to laugh it off and call it “being forgetful.” But Professor Diamond emphasizes: “This forgetfulness is not always benign as we think. Sometimes, it can lead to disaster.”
The severity can escalate through various levels, from forgetting to stop by the supermarket to buy a new mug, to recorded cases such as police officers forgetting loaded guns in public restrooms, doctors leaving surgical tools inside patients, pilots forgetting procedures while flying, and as we’ve seen: Parents forgetting their children in cars.
“This forgetfulness is not always benign as we think. Sometimes, it can lead to disaster.”
“There are studies using brain scans showing that when you do something out of habit, it can actually inhibit your conscious memory system, causing you to lose awareness of your upcoming plans,” Professor Diamond noted.
His research over 20 years indicates that this overriding effect is particularly likely to occur in certain situations, such as when parents are stressed, sleep-deprived, or when unexpected events disrupt their routine.
For example, a child in a typical family is usually taken to school by their father. But on that day, the father is busy, so this task is passed on to the mother. Although the mother physically puts her child in the car, during the journey, with some disruptive element, such as a work phone call or an accident on the road, the mother’s brain may switch from future memory mode to habitual memory mode.
She drives unconsciously from home to work, forgetting her child who is asleep in the back seat. At this moment, if lucky, a signal such as seeing the child’s backpack might pull the mother’s future memory back into focus.
However, if there is nothing strong enough to disrupt habitual memory, the mother will continue her routine of working all day as usual, and disaster will strike when the child is left alone in the car.
“We must accept the fact that our brains have to manage many tasks throughout the day. As part of that multitasking process, the awareness of a child’s presence may be lost“, said Professor Diamond.
“We must accept that human memory has many flaws. This includes the fact that loving, caring parents may forget their children when they are in the car.”
How to Prevent This?
Research based on statistics and surveys of parents shows that 1 in 4 admits to having forgotten the existence of their own child in a car. This is especially true for parents with children under the age of 3, particularly first-time parents.
This phenomenon is also notably true in cases where parents are sleep-deprived, under stress, or experiencing changes in routine, as described by Professor Diamond.
For example, in 2015, a case of a child being forgotten in a car occurred in Victoria, southeastern Australia. The victim was Noah Zunde, a 22-month-old boy who was taken to daycare by his mother that day.
However, the mother later forgot Noah was in the car and drove to work. Even in the afternoon, when she returned, she drove to the daycare to pick him up, believing she had dropped him off that morning.
“I can assure you 100% that she believed she had brought her child here that morning,” a childcare worker said about the mother’s reaction that afternoon. She collapsed upon discovering that her child had been forgotten in the back seat of the car from morning until evening. Tragically, the boy died.
Two years later, the trial against the mother finally began. Investigative records revealed that in the week leading up to the incident, the mother had been sleep-deprived due to stomach pain. She later experienced significant stress when her older daughter fell ill, and Noah was also fussy due to teething.
The defense attorney for the mother stated that she was in a state of “exhaustion” due to fatigue. She also faced several changes in her usual morning routine that day, as she had driven her husband to the train station.
Due to the lack of visual and auditory cues—the mother could not see Noah in the rear-facing car seat, the boy was holding a lunchbox instead of placing it in the front passenger seat, and he remained quiet, likely asleep.
Matthew Mundy, an associate professor of psychology at Monash University, testified in court that in this case of a “perfect storm,” any mother could fall victim to the syndrome of forgetting a child in a car.
He provided research evidence, including works by Professor Diamond and two expert reports on the physiology and neuroscience of the human memory system, to advocate for the mother in this case.
The judge was subsequently convinced. The mother was acquitted of criminal charges.
“I do not think it is appropriate to imprison parents for the deaths of their children in such cases,” agreed Professor Diamond.
“The fact that habitual memory can take over and overwrite future memory, causing parents to lose awareness of a child’s presence in the car, is a tragic example for us to understand the malfunctions of the brain when operating in multitasking mode. There is no indication in the cases I have studied that these parents exhibited reckless intent or gross negligence regarding the child’s welfare.”
Nevertheless, the haunting guilt will undoubtedly not spare any parent who has ever forgotten their child in a car. The question remains: “How can we prevent these tragedies from happening in the first place?“
According to Professor Diamond, the first step to preventing these tragedies is that we, as parents and caregivers, must understand that human memory can have deadly flaws. We should never be complacent, even if we consider ourselves the most responsible and caring individuals.
Then, some of the following strategies may be helpful:
1. Establish safety procedures for children: For example, parents can agree with the daycare that they will always notify the daycare if their child will be late or absent. In return, the daycare will commit to informing parents if the child does not arrive on time or is absent as usual. Additionally, you can set reminders on your spouse’s phone to ensure they have taken the child to daycare.
2. Create visual reminders: Place a diaper bag, jacket, teddy bear, toy, or the child’s hat in the front seat or on the dashboard to constantly remind yourself of the child’s presence in the car.
3. Make it a habit to check the back seat: Keep a routine of placing a lunchbox, backpack, or school bag in the back seat to force yourself to check there each time you drop off or pick up the child.
4. Always lock the car: And keep the car keys out of reach of small children.
5. Never leave a child alone in the car: Under any circumstances and at any time, regardless of the outside temperature, never leave your child alone in the car, as you may become distracted and fall into the syndrome of forgetting a child at any moment.
