Forgotten in car in parking lot in France: 16-month-old child dead

A 16-month-old toddler died in a car in a company parking lot in France after his father forgot to drop him off at the daycare center. Instead of going to the daycare center, the man drove straight to his work in Sausheim, Alsace, near the German border on Tuesday and forgot the boy in the car, the public prosecutor’s office in Mulhouse announced on Wednesday.

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It was not until the evening that he was alerted by his wife, who wanted to pick up her son from the daycare center but did not find him there. The child had spent the whole day unnoticed in the heated car in the sun. An autopsy will determine the cause of death. With outside temperatures of up to 22 degrees on Tuesday, it could have been as hot as 47 degrees inside the car, which was parked far away from any shade, reported the local newspaper “Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace”.

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The emergency services were called and could only confirm that the boy was dead. Psychologists looked after the parents. The father was taken to hospital in shock. Researchers are talking about the forgotten baby syndrome, the newspaper reported. According to the study, 25 percent of all parents of a baby or small child completely forget that their child is there at some point during a car journey – although this rarely has serious consequences.

Trigger: stress, lack of sleep, changed routine

According to the American psychology professor David M. Diamond, who has studied the syndrome intensively, stress, lack of sleep or changes in routine could be the triggers for the child’s forgetfulness. A false memory is created in the brain because routine activities such as driving to work are carried out on autopilot.