Children left unattended in parked vehicles: a focus on recent italian cases and a review of literature

Abstract

Every year a lot of children die from heat stroke and hyperthermia because they have been left unattended in closed automobiles. These fatalities have augmented slightly in the past decade, but they are a poor recognized type of vehicle injury and little research has been done to discover the circumstances surrounding the fatal event. Two factors make children more prone to hyperthermia than adults: children have a greater surface area body mass ratio than adults and their thermoregulation is less efficient than adults. A scientific explanation about how it can happen that a parent leaves his child unattended in the car could be related to the Working Memory (WM): stress increases interference from irrelevant information, impairing selective attention and WM and influencing behavior. In the last two years in Italy 16 cases of child hyperthermia due to abandonment in motor vehicle were identified. These findings suggest that educational programs and literature for parents regarding automobile safety should include information about the potential dangers of heat stress, in fact, as these events are mostly unintentional, legislative efforts may be vain.

Murdered women’s children: A social emergency and gloomy reality

“…Immediate and intensive care for these children and their family is essential. (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29) Black and colleagues, as a result of their experience with these troubled children, suggested some recommendations that include: immediately after the killing, children's placement should be with familiar people; primary health care services should be alerted about the children and early consultations sought from child mental health services; expert advice should be sought regarding the possibility of attending their mother's funeral and of visiting their father. (9) In the longer term, permanent placement planning should begin as soon as possible: the emergency placement should not become permanent by default; therapeutic help should be available as needed, especially for children who witnessed the killing.…”

Focus on children murdered by parents in Italy: A sad reality

“…When the filicide is caused by women capable of understanding and taking action, the motives are: life stressor events, pietas (altruistic murder), the mother's immaturity, the fact that the child is hyperac-tive, the fact that the child is perceived as the result of a sinful act, Medea syndrome, personality dis-orders (addicted, narcissistic or histrionic), the fact that the child is unwanted, depression in a narcis-sistic subject, and behavioral disorders due to alcohol and drug abuse. (30,(31)(32)(33)(34) If pathological causes with partial (greatly diminished) or total impairment to understand and take action are present, the motives are: postpartum psychosis, hysteric fundus, major depression, schizophrenia, twilight state, psychotic disorder due to a general medical condition, epilepsy, oligophfrenia, plaque sclerosis, and multiple personality. (30) …”

Are Parents Willing to Use Technology to Prevent the Tragedy of Forgetting Children Inside Cars?

“…Forgotten children syndrome is the result of a sort of "competition" -between the brain's "habitual memory" system and its "prospective memory" system -in which the habitual memory prevails [13]. This syndrome often ensues when a change in the parent's routine occurs, accompanied by stressful or distracting experiences before or during the drive [7,13,14].…”

“…Pertaining to smartphone apps, their greatest advantage as countermeasures is their low cost and wide availability; therefore, they can be tailored to specific purposes and used to influence patterns and behavior [16]. For example, a smartphone app that provides notifications or alerts [8], a smartphone app that is linked to an occupied car seat or a child reminder system [7,13].…”