HOW WE SEE IT: Kids’ Deaths In Cars Need Awareness

One can certainly be forgiven in recent days for a fixation on ways to keep children safe.

Thedeath of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman in Bentonville lingers with anyone who has a conscience. The facts behind what happened to Jersey are still unfolding. We’ll leave commentary on the case for another day.

Her murder didheighten awareness of the vulnerability of children and the responsibility adults share in protecting the helpless. Her death was purposeful, according to police. Other youthful deaths, as we’ve witnessed in Northwest Arkansas, are accidents of ignorance, forgetfulness or neglect.

We’re talking about kids dying inside cars as sunshine turns vehicles into virtual ovens. One of our news reporters crafted a fine story in Monday’s edition demonstrating several cases locally.

There was the old couple who let their 2-yearold great-grandson accompany them to Walmart but forgot he was in his car seat, insulated from the dangers of a car wreck but not from the oppressive heat of a closed car.

Another man forgot to drop his 14-month-old off at daycare, a job he normally didn’t perform, before he parked and went to his oftce. The child died.

These stories are not unusual. The heartbreak is every bit as real as in Jersey’s death, but reaction is a little harder to define. There’s no one to blame.

We mourn for the family members involved. And it’s impossible not to acknowledge these adults did not fulfill their responsibility to provide care for little ones who rely on adults for their safety.

It is hard to accept such incidents as just a fact of life, so people start looking for solutions. They should, and we applaud those eff orts. Monday’s story revealed one researcher’s theory that the advent of air bags in the 1980s contributed to a rise in child care deaths.

“Then we started seeing kids injured or killed in the front seat, so we started moving kids to the back seat,” said Jan Null of San Francisco State University. “Now the children are out of sight and out of mind.”

The article also cited Tim Randall, an auto mechanic from Springdale who started a Facebook page called Backseat Babies to raise awareness about children left in cars. He wants Springdale, and ultimately the state, to make it a crime to leave children unattended in a car for more than fi ve minutes.

Such an effort is worthy of respect, but the law is destined to only be a feel-good measure. It will have no practical impact. The San Francisco researcher noted only 17 percent of the deaths occurred because the adult involved was ignorant of the dangers. About half are children forgotten by well-meaning but distracted caregivers. Another 30 percent are children playing in unattended vehicles.

How is a law going to make people remember?

And a five-minute law begs the question of who’s timing it, and why would someone just stand around timing kids in a car if they were in danger?

The situation needs a concerted effort at public education about the dangers. We like the example of a Lowell Allstate oftce, where a sign on the door asks “Have you left your child or pet in your car?”

We appreciate businesses that take aft rmative steps to make a difference for the benefi t of the region’s children by advocating on their behalf.

That sort of action, more so than a law, will make a difference before tragedy happens.