What would you do if you saw a baby in the backseat of a car unattended?
ABC News “What Would You Do?” wanted to see what ordinary people would do if they came upon a baby left alone in the backseat on a hot – 80 degree weather – summer day.
A bystander finds what appears to be a sleeping baby inside a hot car, not knowing that she is part of a “What Would You Do?” social experiment. The baby inside the car is actually a life-like doll. (ABC News)
ABC parked a car in a busy suburban area and left a lifelike doll in the back seat with small speakers in the front seat of the car which played sounds of a crying newborn. This made it all the more convincing.
According to Jan Null, professor of Meteorology at San Francisco State University, has studied the impact of car temperatures on children, “an infant can die in a car in as little as 10 minutes,” he said. “Their bodies heat up three times as fast as an adult’s body temperature. So in a situation where an adult would be fine, but uncomfortable, a baby would not.”
Check out these How-To’s on avoiding a Hot-Car Tragedy from Parenting.com:
- Always put your cell phone, purse, or briefcase, and anything else you’ll need that day, on the floor of the backseat. When you retrieve it at the end of the ride, you’ll notice your child.
- Seat your younger (or quieter) child behind the front passenger seat, where he’s most likely to catch your eye.
- Keep a teddy bear or other stuffed animal in the car seat when it’s empty. When you put your child in the seat, move the animal to the front passenger seat, to remind you that your baby’s on board.
- Ask your child’s baby sitter or day care provider to always phone you promptly if your child isn’t dropped off as scheduled.
- Make a habit of always opening the back door of your car after you park, to check that there’s no kid back there.
- Never assume someone else — a spouse, an older child — has taken a young kid out of her seat. Such miscommunication has led to more than a few hot-car deaths.
- Invest in a device to help you remember small passengers. The Cars-N-Kids monitor plays a lullabye when the car stops and a child is in the seat ($29.95). The ChildMinder System sounds an alarm if you walk away and leave your child in the seat ($69.95).
- Put visual cues in your office and home. Static-cling decals reminding you to check the car seat are available at Emmasinspirations. com and Kidsandcars.org.
Check out ABC’s experiment here:
