Eight hours later, the father was seen returning to that car, and driving off. Moments later, after Rodriguez
realised his two children were still in the back seat, he pulled over and jumped out screaming. A bystander
called the police. The medical examiner registered the internal temperature of the children at 108
Fahrenheit (42 Celsius).
This happens to all different types of people. People of all different ages, socioeconomic statuses,
professions, races, ethnicities
Amber Rowlins, the director of the advocacy group Kids and Cars, says that she sees dozens of similar
cases. Parents, in a rush or somehow distracted, simply forget.
Rowlins runs a group headquartered in Kansas that advocates for better safety measures on these issues, and
compiles what is perhaps the saddest database in America – one that tracks all of these children’s deaths.
She says that it could happen to anyone, even a father who just months ago threw a lavish party to celebrate
his twins’ first birthdays in their fence-lined suburban yard.
“This happens to all different types of people. People of all different ages. People of all different
socioeconomic statuses, professions, races, ethnicities,” Rowlins says.
“It truly is one of those things that does not discriminate,” she continues.
Kids and Cars was established in the early 1990s at something of an inflection point for this particular kind
of tragedy, Rowlins says. Before then, children being left unintentionally in cars was relatively rare.
Phoenix Rodriguez and Luna Rodriguez
(Instagram)The newfound understanding that airbags are deadly for young children that developed at that time
changed that. As parents began putting their babies in back seats, so too did they begin to forget them once
they were physically out of sight.