There's science behind why parents leave kids in hot cars

Miles Harrison does the same thing every morning. At 5 a.m., before the sun rises, he sits at his desk with a jar of dirt. Dirt, from his baby's grave.

He puts his fingers in the dirt and talks to his son. Chase Dmitri Harrison died July 8, 2008.

That morning, 11 years ago, Harrison walked into work.

"At about five o'clock, one of my colleagues comes up to me and pokes his head in my office and says, 'Hey do you have a doll in your car?'"

He had forgotten his 1 1/2-year-old in his truck.

Harrison and his wife, Carol, adopted Chase from Russia in March of that year. July 8, Harrison told USA TODAY, was the second or third day he was scheduled to go to day care. It was the first day Harrison was meant to drop him off.

He ran to the car and saw an outline through tinted windows. He ripped Chase out of the car seat. He ran around the parking lot with his son's body in his arms. "Oh God, oh God, oh God," he screamed. "Take me, not him."

Growing numbers of deaths

Harrison would join a sad fraternity of parents whose children have died as temperatures skyrocket inside locked cars during summer months.

More than 900 children have died in hot cars in the U.S. since 1990. Yearly, 38 kids die on average. That's one every nine days, according to KidsAndCars.org, which tracks hot car deaths.

Within the past week, four children have died in hot cars: twins in the Bronx, whose father says he forgot them in the car; a Florida toddler left in a day care van; and a baby girl found in a hot vehicle at a car wash in Texas.

Their deaths bring this year's total of children who have died in hot cars to 25.

As the deadly statistics rise, organizations, parents, government officials and experts have been searching for ways to stop the tragedies.

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KidsAndCars.org is working to pass bipartisan legislation in Congress that would require all new passenger motor vehicles to include a child safety alarm.

Janette Fennell, founder of KidsAndCars.org, told USA TODAY that the organization has been trying to get a driver reminder system added to vehicles since 2003. The group's efforts included language in other bills, which was stripped, and the Hot Cars Act of 2017, which was attached to another bill. Neither passed.

The safety bill would require that cars have both an audio and visual alert that may be combined with a vibration warning, activating when the engine is shut off.

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Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is a co-sponsor of the bill. He told USA TODAY that he decided to get involved in 2014 after a 15-month-old died in a hot car in his state.

"A dad simply forgot that his child was in the back seat of the car, much like what happened in New York," Blumenthal said.

These deaths can be prevented with alert systems in the vehicle that remind parents to "look before you lock," he said.

Some automobile manufacturers, including GM and Hyundai, Blumenthal said, are already making these devices standard equipment in their new models.

"No automobile maker can complain that it is either unaffordable or unachievable," Blumenthal said. "It is a matter of pennies and it will save children."

Fennell and Blumenthal agree that a hot car incident could happen to any parent.

"In the first couple years of a child's life, they could sleep one hour, five hours, not at all all night," Fennell said. "As a new parent, you're so sleep deprived, you're walking around like a zombie."

If you're thinking normally, she said, it's easier to stay on track. But if you're stressed or sleep deprived, then autopilot kicks in. When it does, you begin to forget irregular tasks, such as dropping your child off at day care for the first time.

Science behind the syndrome

David Diamond, a professor of psychology at the University of South Florida, has worked closely with KidsAndCars.org. He focuses on cognitive neuroscience, including the neurobiology of "Forgotten Baby Syndrome."

He has a theory on how caring, competent parents can forget their children in the car.

Diamond's research led him to conclude that the reason is a failure of the memory system. There's a system called "prospective memory," which involves the intent to remember to complete tasks out of your ordinary routine, he wrote. And then there's a system called "habit memory," which is akin to being on autopilot.

The prospective system is what fails when a parent forgets a child in a car. Then habit takes over, Diamond wrote in his research. When it does, regardless of original intent, people complete routine tasks.

It's the same thing that happens when you are in a rush on the way to work and you put your coffee on top of the car roof, Fennell said. You get in, without thinking to take the coffee down, close the door, start to drive and the coffee flies.

It's not always that benign, though. And there is precedent for Diamond's conclusion.

The failure of prospective memory has resulted in other scenarios: plane crashes as a result of memory error, and incidents of police officers forgetting their guns were loaded, Diamond wrote.

A parent leaving a baby in a car is not carelessness; it's a failure of the memory system, he concluded.

A father's tragic tale

After Harrison found Chase, the world became a blur, he recalled: A visit to the police station, an extended stay in a hospital because of a mental breakdown, involuntary manslaughter charges, a trial.

"I wanted to kill myself," Harrison said.

The court's verdict was not guilty. But it didn't matter for Harrison. He did this, he said. More than a decade later, he still doesn't forgive himself.

Russia banned Americans from adopting Russian orphans after Chase died. They named the ban using Chase's birth name: Dmitri Yakovlev.

In addition to losing his child, Harrison said, he cost 23 families already in the process of adopting their children.

"I hurt so many people. I hurt so many people," he said, his voice muffled beneath sobs. "My mistake, I hurt so many people."

For some time now, Harrison has been trying to prevent other tragedies.

He has been working with KidsAndCars.org on legislation to require automobile makers to put in alert systems. It's hard for him, he said, to understand why this can't be done.

"We have alarms for our keys, we have alarms for everything in cars, and you would think that a child would be a little bit more important," he said.

Precautionary actions for parents

There are precautions parents can take.

KidsAndCars.org recommends making a habit of always opening the back door when parked, placing an essential item such as a purse or shoe in the back seat with your child and asking a care provider to contact you if your child is not on time.

The group also suggests keeping the car locked at all times so children can't enter on their own, teaching children to honk the car horn if they are locked in and never leaving keys within a child's reach.

Follow Morgan Hines on Twitter @MorganEmHines.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: There's science behind why parents leave kids in hot cars