Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Weingarten's accidental infant death story - now with a Pulitzer

The Weingarten story on infants who die when accidentally left in the back of a car was published in March of 2009.

I didn't read it then. Unlike Ray Morrogh, an astoundingly arrogant and ignorant prosecutor, I knew this could happen to anyone. I knew it could happen to me.

I've studied human cognition and human error. I knew that the only way to prevent these disasters is to reengineer car seats and car systems. [1]

Today Weingarten won the Pulitzer, and, more or less by accident, I read Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime?.

I wept at the end. Surprised me, since there was nothing in there that was new. When we moved car seats from the front seat to the back seat we saved many lives, but we made these errors inevitable.

It is very well written.

[1] If I still had infant passengers, I would clip a lead from the car seat to my belt every time I got in the driver's seat. Then I'd have to leave my pants in the car to forget the infant. I only heard of that fix after my kids were mobile.
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you for this post. Alan