A 6-month-old boy died after being left for hours in a hot car in Louisiana, authorities said.

A 6-month-old boy died after being left for hours in a hot car in Louisiana, authorities said.

The baby was found dead in the backseat by his parent at about 5:46 p.m. Tuesday, according to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

When the parent went to pick up the baby from day care after work, they realized they forgot to drop him off at day care that morning, the sheriff’s office said.

  • CaptainProton@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    If the parent had line of sight on the baby, would they have forgotten about him?

    Serious question: with today’s cars and car seats, radically different survivability in crashes compared to when car seat laws were passed, would more children die from accidents with front facing seats or no car seats at all? I’ve heard about crash tests done in secret showing the answer is there is no measurable difference with modern bucket seats. (Edit: Struggling to find the paper with actual tests, but there was a separate statistical analysis backing this up, and here’s a link to another paper confirming those results: https://docs.iza.org/dp8590.pdf )

    • Liz@midwest.socialEnglish
      5·
      4 months ago

      Why in the hell would they have to do the tests in secret? So Big Carseat doesn’t shut them down?

      • CaptainProton@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        Struggling to find the paper with actual tests, but there was a separate statistical analysis backing this up, and here’s a link to another paper confirming those results: https://docs.iza.org/dp8590.pdf

        Because it’s a huge chunk of the labs revenue, and there are other labs the companies would want to work with. Then the automakers who make up the rest of the labs business are now potentially liable for kids fitting without a car seat, instead of being able to transfer that liability to the car seat makers. What is the moral thing to do and what are you incentivized to do are very often opposite.

        It just causes far less headaches for automakers to keep the existing laws mandating child safety seats, so the liability can be transferred to other companies that now have a reason to exist, and you have a way of feeling better by spending $500 on the fancy seat instead of 100 bucks on a cheap one that works just as well.