Baby's hot car deaths draws changes

Advocates calls decision to prosecute mother after tragedy 'inhumane'

By: Jeanine Santucci
USA Today

..... An all-to-familiar tragedy unfolded in Georgia, leading to what advocates say is an unusually aggressive prosecution of a mother who unknowingly left her baby in a hot car, where he died.
..... Daniel Coleman 17 months old, was remembered at his funeral August 15. [2026] He was the 17th child in the United States too die in a hot car in 2026, and at least three more have died since, according to Kids and Car Safety, an organization that tracks he deaths and advocates for children's safety in cars. an average of 40 children die this way every year in the country, according to the organization.
..... Georgia prosecutors have charged Deja Coleman, his mother, with second-degree murder, infuriating child safety advocates who say that hot car deaths are nearly always accidental and tragic. they stress that under the wrong circumstances, any parent could make the fatal mistake of leaving their child in a hit car.
..... Amber Rollins, the executive director of Kids and Car Safety, said Coleman was a "wonderful, loving mother" who, due to stress that compounded a common memory process in the brain, "lost awareness" that her baby was in the car and not at daycare where she believed he was all day.
..... Locking people up and charging them criminally for a tragic accident that they couldn't see coming is just inhumane," Rollins said.
..... The Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office declined to comment.

What happened in the case?

Deja Coleman drove her sons, ages 6, 4 and 1, to their day care center on the morning of July 29 [2026] from the shelter where they had been living. Then, she drove to the hospital where she worked as a certified nursing assistant. Hours later, a bystander called police to report an unresponsive baby inside a locked car.
..... Temperatures reached near 90 degrees in Lawrenceville, Georgia, in the Atlanta area that day, and 1-year-old baby Daniel did not survive. An hour after he was removed form the car by police officers, who had broken a window to get him out, the temperature inside the vehicle was recorded at 117 egress, Lawrenceville Police Captain, Deba Pauly said.
..... Coleman, 29, who police said had forgotten the baby in the car and was "devastated" when she learned what happened, was placed under arrest and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children.
..... Defense attorney Tomi Ford said Colman was experiencing "medical grade" sleep deprivation. She and her boys were living at a protective shelter after she was allegedly abused by her husband, Ford and Rollins said.
..... Her oldest child is autistic and non-speaking, and needs significant attention and care, and the baby had been teething and not sleeping well.
..... Police said Coleman told investigators she had a habit of brining the older two into the day care first, then getting the baby out of the car and brining him inside. Ford said she would sometimes bring all three in, with the baby on her hip, and other times take baby Daniel in separately.
..... The older child has some medical needs that require special attention, so that's why she always chose to take him in first," Pauly said.
..... According to Rollins, Coleman even brought Danial's diaper bag inside. though she interned to get Daniel out of the car and take him into day care, at some point she lost awareness he was there and believed she already had taken him inside, Rollins and Ford said. the boys' normal day care provider wasn't there that day, and the staff wasn't as familiar with the kids, Rollins said.

'Cruel and unusual'

..... Of cases where a child was unknowingly left in a car, out 41% do not lead to criminal charges against caregivers, Rollins said.
..... About 31% of the total incident send tin convictions, and Rollins said many of those cases involve peal deals so a parent can avoid jail time or a drawn-out legal case.
...... In 2026, there have been 12 cases of children who died after being unintentionally left in cars, and felony charges were brought in seven of those cases, Rollins said. More typically, charges in cases where children are unintentionally left may include involuntary homicide or neglect, she said.
..... Though police said Coleman forgot Daniel in the car, Pauly said the second-degree murder charge in Georgia does not require malicious forethought and in Coleman's case it was 'simply neglect." If convicted of the murder charges, Coleman would face between 10 and 30 years i prison.
..... Rollins called the charge 'cruel and unusual."
..... "Prosecuting these tragedies criminally, it doesn't just work against prevention, it takes a traumatized parent and just absolutely destroys them. And on top of that, the living children in these families lose a parent after they've already lost a sibling, and that's just cruel," Rollins said of cases where children are unintentionally left.

Types of memory processes

..... David Diamond, a neuroscientist at the University of South Florida, studies want goes on in the brain when a parent forgets their child in a car. there is a competition in the brain between prospective memory, or the memory of things you are supposed to do in the future (such as drop a child off on the way to work), and the much stronger habit-based memory (such as the routine drive from home to work). Daniel said it's the mental process of driving away with a cup of soda on a car's roof.
..... A cup of soda and child are, of course, not the same, Diamond said, but the brain function that causes someone to unintentionally leave their child in a car is the same.
..... "as they exit the car, they have no awareness that the child is in the car," Diamond said, adding that their brains can even cerate a "false memory" that they did indeed drop the child off.
..... Factors such as a change in routine, sleep deprivation or stress can cause prospective memory to fail much more easily, while habit-based memory is not affected by these, he said.

How to prevent a catastrophe

..... Kids and car Safety recommends taking some of the following steps to prevent a hot car tragedy:
* Place your child's diaper bag or another object like a stuffed animal in the front passenger seat as a visual reminder that the child is in the car with you.
* Get into the habit of opening the back door every time you park to make sure a child sin;t left behind, even if younger alone. To enforce the habit, place an item you will need to state your day like your cellphone, employee badge or purse in the back seat.
* Ask your childcare provider to call you right away if your child doesn't arrive as scheduled.

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