Dozens of kids die in hot cars each year and their parents are rarely charged. This is why.

Show Caption

When Norman Collins Sr. passes cars, he looks inside to make sure a child hasn't been left behind. He knows the pain of losing a baby in a hot car all too well and doesn't want anyone else to go through the same tragedy. 

On May 29, 2011, his 3-month old grandson Norman Lee Van Collins III, nicknamed Bishop, died after accidentally being left in a car in a Mississippi church parking lot.

Bishop's family was running late to church that day. His dad, the minister of music, was retrieving his keyboard from the car when he asked a church member to get the baby and take him to the nursery. But the churchgoer didn't hear him. 

After the service ended, the parents realized Bishop wasn't in the nursery. They found him in the car unresponsive. Bishop was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. 

"It's been 11 years. It seems like it was just yesterday," Collins Sr.,59, said. "Each year is kind of different. This year was very hard."

Bishop's father, Norman Collins Jr., was initially charged in his death, but a grand jury refused to indict him, Collins Sr. said.  

"They did not indict because they realized it was an accident," Collins Sr. said.  

Since 1990, more than 1,000 children like Bishop have died after being left in hot cars, according to the advocacy group Kids and Car Safety. On average, 38 kids die every year in hot cars. At least 10 children have died so far this year.

'It can happen to anybody:' How many US kids have died in cars this summer?

Most hot car deaths happen because someone forgets there’s a child in the car, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. When a parent forgets their child is in the car, is it an accident or a crime?  

Overall, more than half of hot car death cases didn't result in a conviction between 1990 and 2020, according to an analysis by Kids and Car Safety. And about 41% of parents who unknowingly left their child in a car aren't charged.  

Even in cases where the neglect might seem flagrant enough to bring charges, it can be difficult to secure a conviction.

The Georgia Supreme Court last month overturned the murder and child cruelty convictions against a man whose 22-month-old son died when he was left in the car for hours after his father arrived at work. Prosecutors said Justin Ross Harris intentionally killed his child to free himself from family commitments, presenting evidence of sexual flirting and affairs with women and girls he met online.

Justices agreed there was enough evidence to convict Harris in 2016, but the court said much of the evidence about Harris' sexual activities shouldn't have been admitted and may have improperly influenced the jury. 

For Amber Rollins, director of Kids and Car Safety, prosecuting parents who unknowingly leave their child behind is not the solution to preventing hot car deaths.

"Criminalizing this really kind of does the opposite of what we need to do, which is prevent it from happening," Rollins said. "When parents see that others are being charged for this, they look at that and say, 'Well, this is a criminal issue, and I'm not a criminal.'"

How can a parent forget a child in a car?

Parents lose awareness that kids are in the car with them due to a memory failure, according to David Diamond, a neuroscientist and professor at the University of South Florida who studies cases of forgotten children in cars. 

The memory lapse comes down to a competition between the brain's prospective memory system, in charge of remembering future plans, and its habit memory system, akin to being on autopilot. When a parent loses awareness that a child is in the car, it's because the habit memory system takes over, Diamond said. 

Factors such as changes in routine, stress and sleep deprivation tend to contribute to the memory failure.

"Stress and sleep deprivation make it much more likely that we're going to use our habit brain memory system, and we're going to forget what we want to keep in our conscious brain memory system," Diamond said. 

Diamond has also found that the parent's brain creates a false memory that the child was dropped at daycare, making them not realize that the child is still in the car. 

The memory lapse can happen to anyone, Diamond said, but the majority of people don't accept the possibility that they, too, could forget their child.

"It's not about how much you love your child," Diamond said. "This is about the flaws in human brain functioning, and that anyone under, in a sense, the wrong combination of circumstances...is capable of forgetting a child in the car."

And it can even happen to someone who has studied the brain and memory for decades. 

Opinion: My child died in a hot car. What his legacy has taught me about love and forgiveness.

Years ago, Diamond drove to the mall with his infant granddaughter in the back seat. When he arrived to his destination, he got out of the car and headed towards the store. It was his wife who reminded him the baby was in the car.  

"If I had been alone, I might be one of those statistics in which you're talking about a child dying in a hot car," Diamond said. "It personifies just how easy this can happen." 

When parents unknowingly and unintentionally leave their child in a car, Diamond wrote in a paper, "it is a public-health issue and a tragedy, but it is not a crime."

Law enforcement's "knee-jerk reaction to immediately incarcerate someone is not justified," Diamond said. "I really try to emphasize that these people, especially if it can be shown that it was unintentional, should not be charged for the crime."

Prosecuting hot car deaths

For prosecutors, the critical question in hot car deaths is whether a parent or caregiver truly forgot or intentionally left the child behind, said Erika Breitfeld, a law professor at Western Michigan University who has written about the prosecution of these cases.

Breitfeld categorizes hot car death cases in three groups: 

• Parents who forget the child is in the car, 
• Parents who take a risk and leave the child because they're uneducated about the dangers,
• Parents who intentionally leave the child to die. 

Figuring out in which category a parent falls under depends on law enforcement's investigation.  

When investigating these cases, authorities look for certain factors to help them determine whether the parent forgot or was intentional, said Arizona's Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. 

"What we're looking at is for something more than mere forgetting to take place," Mitchell said. "So for example, if somebody was impaired or if somebody knowingly left the child in the car, but then was doing something frivolous, for lack of a better term, such that the time got away from them." 

In 2019, a 3-year-old girl died in Gilbert, Arizona, after being left in a car for more than two hours. She was supposed to go to school that day, but her parents decided to keep her home because they were about to go on vacation. Her father forgot to take her out of the car.

The man was arrested by police on a negligent homicide charge, but the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute him.  

Mitchell said a common factor in many cases in which a parent forgets is a change in routine, similar to what happened in the 2019 case. 

"The reality is in these situations, where it truly is an accident, they're paying a price that I could never exact on them," Mitchell said. "Is it truly a criminal mindset that we're dealing with here to punish? And the answers in this situation and in some other situations is no, it's not, it's a tragic accident."

Safety tips for parents

Advocates and lawmakers are pushing to require car companies to integrate technology to detect if someone is still in the car when the engine is turned on in order to prevent hot car deaths. Until that happens, it's up to parents and caregivers to avoid a tragic accident, Rollins, of Kids and Car Safety, said. 

Kids and Car Safety recommends parents take the following steps:

• Make a habit of opening the back door every time you park. 
• Create a visual reminder that the child is in the car. For example, leave a stuffed animal in the baby's car seat, and when you put the child in the car, put the toy in the front seat next to you. You could also place an item you need during your day, such as a phone, in the back seat. 
• If your child goes to daycare, ask your provider to call you if the baby does not arrive as scheduled. 
• Make sure your child can't get into a parked car by keeping the vehicle locked and the keys out of reach. 

After Bishop's passing, Collins Sr. became an advocate and has joined Kids and Car Safety in calling on Congress to take action to prevent fatal accidents like the one his family went through. He shares his grandson's story with the hope of saving other children. 

"I just want people to be to pay more attention and be mindful of the things that matter." 

More coverage for Paste BN subscribers

• Uvalde shooting: Uvalde residents demand answers as mayor criticizes release of shooting surveillance video
• Peace Corps investigation: Your tax dollars paid a Peace Corps worker $258,000 — after he killed a woman
• LIV Tour: What does Greg Norman want to achieve with LIV Golf? 'The Shark' tells all in Q&A
• What makes a 'good parent'?: Hayden Panettiere shows prioritizing your mental health can make you a better parent
• Inflation 2022: If you think inflation is wild now, look at how it has spiked over the past century

Contributing: Associated Press