Malaysia was saddened last week by the news of yet another child who died from heat stroke after being left in a car. The three-year old girl was found dead in a school in Subang Jaya, soaked with sweat after spending five hours in a car.
You may think five hours is a long time, and that’s why it happened, but did you know that it can take as little as 15 minutes stuck in an overheated car interior for a child to suffer life-threatening brain or kidney injuries?
According to NBC News, which quotes paediatric emergency experts, a child’s body can heat up much faster than an adult’s. When a child’s body temperature hits 40 degrees Celsius, internal organs shut down, and at 41.6 degrees Celsius, the child could die.
According to Ahmad Mahyuddin Mohamed, Orthopedic and Traumatology consultant at Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital in Temerloh, there’s no guarantee that a heat stroke can be prevented with slightly opened windows and leaving the air conditioner on in a static car. Children shouldn’t be left alone in a car even for a minute. The heat can cause sweating, dehydration, seizures, brain and organ damage, and eventually death.
Just watch the video below to see what happens when a busy mother leaves her young son in a car. The video is said to be a re-enactment, and the child is an unharmed actor, but what happens can be very real.
The mother in the video looks completely normal, and her routine could mirror that of any one of us. Yes, it could happen to any one of us. According to statistics in the US, only about 10% of child heat stroke-related deaths involve neglect or substance abuse by the caretaker.
A majority of the cases occur when loving parents get distracted from their routine and they don’t realise that the child was in such a position, which was exactly what happened in Subang Jaya. The mother forgot to drop the child off at the daycare as she was rushing for a meeting.
Our busy schedules, combined with the tendency for us to seat our sleeping children in the rear of our cars (because that’s where the child seat is usually mounted), could cause us to forget that we are carrying precious cargo in our car cabins. We could potentially go about our routine and leave our kids locked in the car.
Other than trying our very best to remember, other methods we can use to ensure that we don’t forget about our sleeping babies is to place an item (that you need to take with you when you leave your car) at the rear with the child. This could be your handbag, for example, and you can place it on the floor in a secure area just so you are forced to go to the back of the car when you leave.
To passersbys, if you spot a child left in a car alone, you should call the police immediately. If you watched the video, you’d know that the child in the video was saved by passersbys.
You can also share this story or the embedded YouTube video on your Facebook, Twitter or other social media platforms to get the word out. You might just save a life.
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Its really sad to hear bout this. Btw Paul, saw you at Intercontinental with Harvinder during Iftar buffet :)
LOL. The mother is my mom’s collegue. The incident happened in SMK USJ 4. Poor girl. This happened due to her mum were rushing for school meeting after sent her brother to KLIA. She forgot that her daughter in the car. Her husband were outstation. Now she feels depressed on her daughter death. poor mum and child
Such negligence is very heartbreaking.
Coming late to a meeting by just a few extra seconds would’ve saved the baby’s life, had only the mother just spent that little time to confirm and reconfirm the child is in the car.
We all should make it a habit, even let people mock you having OCD, to always check the car for anything important item left before setting off.
All cars nowadays should be equipped with some sort of an alarm device that will sound after detecting a child is left locked in the car especially during hot sunny daytimes. The alarm should sound when the driver is far enough for the Remote to reach but near enough for him/her to hear. My dad had that in his 3 Series (E46) and it saved my life (I was young, though)
Fully agree, I think most cars nowadays have motion detection usually placed top front of the car to detect window breach which triggers the alarm. I tried it and it works.
BMW Malaysia cars have no motion detector. They don’t even have alarm. Alarm system is a luxury reserved only for 6 Series, 7 Series onwards, and i think only 740i onwards. Everyone other BMW owner is a peasant.
I agree too, but to equip with such equipment as Luqman_HKM mentioned, I guess it will only be implement on expensive vehicles.
Because it’s too HIGH TECH for cheap cars like Myvi, Saga, Preve and so on.
no so expensive la.. my honda city 2007 also comes with this, alarm will trigger if lock with passenger inside the car
I remember when we first gotten our Honda City, my mom left for a medicine store nearby to quickly get some stuff and I stayed behind in the car. We weren’t familiarized with all the cars fancy gizmo(our prev car being a turn of the century Wira aero back), and soon enough the alarm begin ringing. My mom came out and disabled it before continuing with her errands when soon enough the alarm went off again. A quick check with the manual shows that the cars alarm will go off everytime there’s movement inside the car while the key isn’t present anywhere nearby. I think if a City can have this tech all cars, from A segments superminis to large luxo barge should have it. Given that I wasn’t doing much except playing my portable console, the system should be able to detact even babies little movement.
we dont need to blame the mother for the incident.
she suffers enough from losing her daughter :(
Just charge them.
Did u read the statistic? The latest 4 cases.
3/4 are teachers.
Put them behind bars for at least 5 yrs.
it’s heartbreaking to charged the mother..but action must be taken to protect and send a message to all the parents. i dont think jailed is necessary for first offender..fine should be enough as a lesson.
Maybe car manufacturers can also think of a way to have some kind of safety measure or alert device to prevent a child or someone being left in a car?
Maybe an always-on motion sensor that will detects movement in the car when the engine is off, and then unlocks the door and make some sound to attract attention? Or auto wind down window.
It might not work on sleeping babies but better than nothing.
This would work for people neglecting pets in their cars as well.
Everyone makes mistakes, but this is negligence. If you fail to take your child with you, whether or not you forgot or on purpose, and if the child dies because of it, is negligence. This is not a recurring problem for everyone, but there are just some ‘special’ people who just ‘forgot’ or ‘didnt care’ that they left a child unattended in cars.
Ive seen alot of cases in petronas, even worse, when they leave the child in the car, with motor on, on the steering wheel while the mother goes in to go ATM. It may be a norm, but THAT is negligence. And is not a fit parent.
Its tough, yes, but as a parent, you NEED to be extremely alert of your children regardless of your surrounding situation. They are not iPads, they are harmless, sinless human beings that NEEDS a mothers love, care and ATTENTION to survive.
They may be in utter depression and in the worse state to even accept their childs loss and then to get inprisoned because of it, it is nothing we can do to help, all leave it to evidence.
I am not pro or con to the fact that ‘humans fail’ thing, yes, we do, but anything tht anyone did that can take a life away, should not be called a failure and be left alone, this sounds disrespectful for dead children, who could not experience their future because of a ‘failure’.
It’s not correct to call it negligence. All humans fail – it’s only a matter a time. That’s because we are humans, not machines.
I work in an industrial setting and the way to achieve safety and zero accidents is not make people “take the time to double check”. With many thousands of workers in the factory working 8 hours a day you would have an accident every week if you just relied on people to “double check”. The way to achieve zero accidents is to design the processes so there is no possibility of failure. For example, safety bars, electrical lockouts, automatic shutoff, etc. The paradigm shift that needs to happen is that people need to acknowledge that humans are fallible and then design the processes to prevent accidents. People always overestimate themselves: you might think, I am OCD, I always check both ways when I cross the road, I’ve been doing it for 30 years without an accident. Well guess what, by definition your brain only remembers the times when you did check – there is no way to remember the times you didn’t check, because it was a non-event.
I’m sure this issue will be addressed eventually: I’d like to see more cars have a solar powered fan / air circulator like the Prius that can mitigate the temperature gain – won’t prevent anyone from dying, but it will give them more time for help to arrive. Maybe internal sensors that can detect the presence of humans / animals in the car – who knows, maybe something that measures the air gasses, motion, etc – and automatically keeps the temperature at a safe range if so. It’s the sort of thing that can only happen through government legislation, maybe, because if it costs $50 for the feature, no one would buy it, because everyone thinks this will never happen to them because they’re “not negligent people” and they “always check”.
What matters is the underlying attitude towards safety, it underpins the systems to prevent accidents.
Eg rear seatbelts have been made compulsory, but if people take it lightly, thinking it’s cool (extremely stupid to me) to not wear seatbelts, the system (seatbelt) has failed due to lackadaisical attitude towards such safety feature.
Agreed. Its behaviour. Todays oil companies are concentrating on behavioural based training for hse…providing safety equipments goes only so far if you dont care. This applies in daily life…people must care..what is more important than your childs life?
Going by your case, to say “no one would buy it” is too strong, would be more accurate to say most wouldn’t buy it given our market is more obsessed with showing off you’ve made it in life and chasing resale value rather than putting safety first.
Those who put safety first, will surely be willing to spend, typically a Volvo consumer, cause they’re most concerned about safety.
I think rather than govt forcing manufacturers, they should give tax break and/or other incentives to encourage the industry to improve safety. Imagine the safer a car, the more tax break it gets and the cheaper it gets. A stark contrast to current situation where manufacturers are reluctant to fit in safety features to save cost (yet sell more expensive like the scumbag UMW and TCM). I think giving tax break is taxpayers’ money spent well.
mcm pistol la…Always assume that a gun is loaded even if you think it is unloaded…
jpj kene tambah lagi satu subjek baru…keselamatan bayi dalam kereta…
kite yg tua ni pon…kalo duduk dalam kereta walaupon dalam parking kereta shopping complex yg berteduh tu pon terasa panas yg amat…nikan pulak tinggal di tempat parking kereta dikawasan terbuka…lagi la panas…
satu lagi amalan yg ayah saya pernah buat…dia selalu tinggal kereta dgn tingkap yg tidak tutup terlalu rapat…sekadar cukup utk udara keluar masuk je sudah…
Good and timely reminder.
BTW it’s spelled ‘passersby’ not ‘passerbys’ :)
Cheers
It’s all upbringing in parenthood in MY in road safety , the other day I passed a MYvi lady driver with her child on lap looking out the driver’s window ( like dogs which love the fresh breeze).
Some people just are simply NOT fit to drive a car that’s ALL. Go ride a bicycle with your love ones on pillion if you want fresh air please.
parent’s should be brought to court for negligence causing children death! there are too many such case….
children left in car…
children not wearing helmet…
children not wearing safety belt…
children killed by dropped TV…
children killed by electric shock in home…
children roam about when parent having breakfast at coffee shop… (parent addicted to mobile phones)
… and many many more
The truth is, we overestimate our own attitude towards safety. We are quick to lambast carmakers, especially umw and tan chong for selling dangerous, overpriced milo tin, but they can keep doing so because the majority of us behave as such that safety is much lower priority than badge snobbery, and resale value.
This is very insulting, i sometimes feel those parents deserve losing their kids for stupidly materialistic pursuit. It just reflects their attitude towards safety.
The biggest loser is sadly the innocent children, our future generation, and they stand to lose their lives, by the very hands of their own couldn’t-care-less parents!
Aksesori Keselamatan adalah PERNIAGAAN
only in malaysia…
stupid umno dragoons
With most of the newer car will have airbag at the front seat, baby usually will put at the back seat. Potential negligence always at there.
The correct statement “Safety Start With Me”. Incorrect statement “Safety Start With You”
i noticed VWs have some sort of sensor just above the reat view mirror. i think it is a motion detector. can anyone confirm?
that one is glare sensor. most pug have that.
U r right, VWs have motion sensor above rear view mirror. It triggers alarm when detects motion when doors are locked (when lock button pressed once). U can purposely deactivate it by pressing lock button twice quickly. Not to be confused with glare sensors at the back of the mirror
sorry typo. should be rear view mirror.
Terkenang kembali about 20 years ago my mom went to hair saloon and left me in a car for about 1 hour, luckily i still live today
Some parent purposely roasted their child in this way to claim insurance
“Harhar” received thumbs down statement his remark.
With regards to insurance claim, it is true that there are parents out there who intentially got rid of their kid to claim insurance. Insurace company are aware of this and hence they provided no or limited payout for typically the first 5 years in the event of a claim for a child that is insured.
Also. the fact is that a person died because of someone else negligence. Some form of punishment must be imposed by the law. Otherwise, the spread of this awareness will always be minimal and we being human tends to forget.