Last week a public traffic safety officer who is also a collision investigator named Elad Ronen posted a frightening post of how he forgot his daughter in his car, how it happened and why it can happen to anyone.
“Yesterday I forgot my daughter in the car. Yes, it happened to me too. My wife who normally takes her to kindergarten had an early meeting so I took my daughter instead. Leaving the neighborhood on a big town square stuck in traffic I took a look at my cell phone. I didn’t hold it nor did I touch it, but from the moment I looked at it my mind started to race ahead. I started thinking about this morning’s upcoming meetings, the phone calls I need to make to a lawyer about an opinion I wrote, about a collision that thank G-d no one died in and more.”
“The moment I looked at the phone and my thoughts started racing my mind slipped into ‘autopilot’ and I totally forgot my daughter was in the back seat. I went through the roundabout in the town square and I continued straight to work instead of the kindergarten. I thought to myself “I’ll soon be at the office and start my workday”.
“To my great fortune, my wife called at the next roundabout and asked if I already dropped our daughter at the kindergarten. So it comes out that anyone can forget their child in a car and I was fortunate that in my case there was a happy ending.”
Ronen also offers a tip for people wondering what they can do about preventing this from happening and how to deal with the daily pressures that make us forget if our children are in the car with us: “When you change your routine, with anything pertaining to your children’s safety my advice is, simply to talk a lot. Talk to your children and with your spouse and track your spouse when he/she’s driving to prevent tragedy from happening.”
Ronen concludes: I wish you a pleasant drive and safe journey. May you reach your destination safely.
Signed: Elad Ronen, Public Traffic safety Officer and Collision Inspector, Father of a smiley daughter.”