Editorial: Always check the back seat for children

Today is a day to remember fathers.

Instead, it seems important to urge everyone to remember kids instead. The littlest children. The ones without words yet. The ones who fall asleep quietly in the back of cars.

Dads can take care of themselves. They really don’t need another tie. What they do need are their kids — living and breathing, whining about snacks and giggling about jokes parents can’t understand. Without the kids, a dad is just a guy.

Every year, children die in those back seats when people forget about them. They drive to the office or the grocery store or to a class and, while juggling a briefcase or a purse or a gym bag with keys and a coffee and cellphone, the little life strapped in that car seat gets lost.

The most common reason children die of heatstroke is being forgotten in cars — an idea that most people can’t imagine. How can you possibly forget your child? It’s happened more than 1,000 times in the last 30 years.

It happened 13 times in Pennsylvania. On Thursday, that number crept up to 14 with the death of Kayden Nguyen of Peters Township.

Kayden was just 3 months old. He was found unresponsive in a vehicle about 5 p.m. in Upper St. Clair. Allegheny County Police say he was in that vehicle for hours. He was pronounced dead at the scene after first responders were unable to revive him.

It is a terrible story. It is a story that happens over and over, all around the country. Only Alaska and Vermont have no documented cases of it occurring, but that could change at any time. It may be most common in notorious hot zones like Texas and Florida, but nowhere is truly immune. Where there are children and cars, it is a risk.

Leaving dogs in cars tends to provoke vociferous response — probably because it is more a choice than an oversight. Dogs can be active as they bark and jump, gaining attention — even prompting concerned onlookers to break windows — and yet still hundreds die in hot weather.

On a 90-plus degree day, the temperature in a parked car with the closed glass windows acting like a greenhouse can quickly top 110 degrees. A child’s temperature raises even faster inside that oven. It can take just 15 minutes in scorching heat to bring a baby’s temperature up to a potentially deadly 106 degrees.

The obvious solution is to not forget there is a kid in the car. Put your purse in the back. Stick your cellphone in the car seat; you shouldn’t be using it while you drive anyway.

But this is an instance where the “it takes a village” adage is undeniably true. Parents can forget. For whatever reason, accidents happen. Everyone paying attention to car seats the same way they notice a golden retriever, however, could make a difference. Take a glance. Call for help.

Father’s Day should be about barbecues and hammocks. We shouldn’t have to think about children dying alone in the heat. If everyone can be on the lookout for the most vulnerable this summer, maybe Kayden will be the last life lost.