In the news, I am reading the story of yet another toddler dying after a car backs over him. The true misfortune falls not in the child’s death, but in the knowledge the child’s death is preventable. The worst part of the story is the car’s driver is the child’s mother.

In this sad situation the mother, thought the father, had the child in question in his car. Both parents were moving cars around in the driveway of their home. The father thought the mother had the child in her car, and unknown to either of them the 21-month old was in the driveway behind the car the mother was moving, when misfortune struck. The child later died at a local hospital.

The parents are now dealing with so many questions of what could I have done differently. The game of would have, should have, could have will play repeatedly in their heads, yet sadly nothing that they can think of in hindsight will change the outcome. Their baby is dead; their hearts forever shattered, and lives forever changed.

As I was driving home this morning before I read this story in the news I passed three small children playing in and out of the backseat of a car in my neighborhood. All three children wearing school backpacks, were kindergarten or first grade age and were climbing in and out of the back door of a four-door mid size sedan, unsupervised.

What was most frightening about the situation was where the car rested, at the end of the driveway. This left the children playing right next to the street, which is on a corner. As people turn the corner, if any of the children stumbled even a few steps they would be in the street. This would make them instantly a target for any car coming around the corner.

As I passed the children, I was thinking about the three boys in New Jersey a few years back that disappeared playing right in their own yard. The families and police searched for days, even searching a nearby river, believing the boys wandered off. The bodies of all three boys found inside the trunk of a family car. The boys deciding to explore the trunk became entrapped when the door slammed shut.

As parents it is important to keep cars keys out of reach of children, and cars locked, even when in parked at home. Teach children that cars are not toys to play in and on or around. Tell them the dangers of cars. Children must understand that cars are not hiding places for games, that cars are dangerous places, especially if they become entrapped.

All 2002 car models and newer are suppose to be equip with a trunk release, to prevent entrapment. Show children from an early age about how this works and how to use it in case they become trapped, or kidnapped and placed in a trunk.

Show children how important it is to walk in front of cars when crossing in parking lots or streets, so the drivers can see them. By crossing behind a car if the car suddenly backs up they are too small for a driver to see.

Kids are around cars from birth and become familiar with them. Cars are like an extension of our homes. How easy to forget that even though both parents are home, the child was with one parent, and he decides to go the other one, the parents should be communicating the child is coming to them.

Parents need to remember that cars are huge metal objects and in essence more deadly than having a loaded gun in the home. We need to be as careful with our cars as we would be if we had any other dangerous weapon. Cars are as dangerous as a loaded gun, perhaps more dangerous than a loaded gun since we are in and around them every day.

Leaving a child unattended in a car is now illegal in many states. Although, common sense should dictate this is a stupid act, everyday parents leave children unattended to “run” into a store for a few minutes or go in and pay for gas. Once you lose a child it is too late to take back the few minutes a parent saved by leaving a child unattended in a car.

For more information on the dangers of children in and around car please visit KidsInCars.Org. Read Harrison’s Story and learn why leaving children unattended in a car is a crime.