Alarming news: New device to "remind" parents that baby's in the back seat

Several days ago, I read this terrible, gut-wrenching article about a three-year-old left in a vehicle by his mother, who apparently rushed off to work, at a hospital of all places, forgetting about her son in the back seat. He had been in his car seat, asleep, and then he woke up, tried to get out, couldn't, and because this was in Houston and in 90 degree heat, the inevitable occurred.

It's sickening, and I'm mad, and I'm not completely furious at the parents of these kids because, to a point, I get it. We live in a crazy, stressed out world, and some parents have it worse than others, and I don't feel like I can truly judge people whose lives I have no insight into. I'm saying that in part because I'm assuming they're distraught beyond belief and so why pile onto their guilt?

But I am mad, even if at no one in particular, and if you read enough of these stories (and every time I do, I wonder why I continue reading after the grim headline), you will start to sense a trend. Just about every kid who dies in a hot car really isn't in a car -- they're usually in a mini-van, SUV or a truck. In other words, a more spacious vehicle where it really is easier to forget that there is a small, vulnerable person traveling with you. I could link up to a lot of terrible recent stories from the last few years and show you what vehicles parents were driving, but that's gruesome and not the point of this post. When I started writing this a few paragraphs ago, I thought, "Boy, there have to be some ways you can prevent this..."