This is just horrible -

[Tangerine LaBamba]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6399881.html

[FedUpWithIt All]

1. OMG.

Too unbelievably sad.

[HopeFor2006]

2. In too much of a hurry to strap a 1 year old into his car seat?

Inexcusable.

[Dora]

5. I hope nobody ever says that word to you.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. We all make mistakes........

Of course we do. "To err is human..." and all that.

But this woman had two small children with her, and she neglected to put a one-year-old boy in his car seat because she was in a hurry. A one-year-old in the front seat of her truck? One year old?

And - this is maybe the worst thing - the door wasn't properly closed.

This woman was negligent in more ways that one. The incident is, as I posted, horrible, but it was all avoidable. That's what "inexcusable" means in this context - it didn't have to happen...........................

[moc]

8. Once, when my daugther was ~10 months old, I forgot to strap in her carseat.

She was over 20 lbs, and at that time, most infant carseats weren't approved for rear-facing infants over 20 pounds. I had to rent a carseat from a state car seat program, a contraption that converted from a car seat to a stroller. (Pain in the ass to use, btw.)

I remember being incredibly tired one afternoon. I collapsed the stroller contraption into the carseat with dd strapped inside and put it in the back seat of my vehicle. I forgot to strap it in, and then I drove off. I remember I was driving on the Washington D.C. beltway. I got off at Colesville Road, and I remember looking in the rearview mirror as I took the cloverleaf, just in time to see dd's carseat s--l--i--d--e ever so slowly from one side of the car to the other. :wow: Yes, I pulled over immediately and strapped her in properly.

Anyway, not saying that's what happened in this case, but you never know. It can happen more easily than you think.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. God!!!!

You made me gasp with that story.

Things happen in an instant. In an instant, and lives are changed - or ended - forever.

Of course you immediately pulled over, and you never left it unstrapped again, I'll bet.

[Arugula Latte]

11. I did that one time, too, with my son.

We were visiting family in California and there was a lot of transferring of car seats, etc., instead of the usual just-leave-it-in-the car routine. My son was strapped into the forward-facing seat (he was a little more than one) and I took a corner and the whole thing tipped over onto its side with my son strapped in. He was crying but unharmed. My heart was galloping a mile a minute.

It's easy for that stuff to happen, particularly when you factor in the tired/distracted parent-of-young child/ren brain.

[madeline_con]

3. It wouldn’t have happened if the child had been in his car seat.”

[CoffeeCat]

4. My SUV broadsided a minivan...

The minivan blew a stop sign. I completely totaled the minivan and the force pushed the minivan off the street and into
a yard. There was a baby in the backseat that was not buckled in. The car seat was turned upside down with
the baby crying. The mother stood in the street screaming bloody murder. I had to be the calm rational one,
who turned the baby seat over---not knowing what I would find. The baby was fine--although I have no idea how.
The baby was not buckled into the seat, nor was the seat latched in place.

Bottom line...buckle up your children in seat belts if they are small. With babies make sure the carrier is
secure and the baby is buckled in as well.

Don't mess around.

I did all of that damage...and I was only going 25 mph.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

7. I know a family that lost their child this way

many years ago. Believe me, they have suffered shear hell for decades.

[spanone]

10. jeeeeez

[niyad]

12. several years ago here, a woman forgot that she had her child in the car (properly belted in)

when she went to work (her regular child care provider was ill or somthing) the woman forgot, left her child in the car all day in the hot summer sun.

I cannot even begin to imagine her torment still.

[mnhtnbb]

13. When I was about 6 years old (1950's) before any seat belts, I was

riding in the front seat of my grandmother's car. She made a turn, the passenger door, which had not been properly shut, eased open, and I started sliding toward the open door. My grandma slammed on the breaks
and I flew into the dash board with my arms extended. It's one of the few memories I have of my grandmother!