Death of Connecticut child left in hot car ruled a homicide - May, 2016

The Connecticut medical examiner has ruled the death of a 15-month-old boy who was left in his father's car in July a homicide.

The cause of Benjamin Seitz's death was hyperthermia because of environmental exposure, the state medical examiner said on Wednesday.

On July 7, Kyle Seitz was supposed to drop his son off at day care in Ridgefield, Connecticut, but the drop-off never occurred, his wife, Lindsey Rogers-Seitz told CNN last month.

Seitz drove to work, and at the end of the day he went to pick Ben up at day care, only to realize he was not there. That was when Seitz found his son in the car. He rushed the child to the hospital, but Ben had died.

Car Seat - A Simple App That Saves Lives

As a parent, it's hard to imagine leaving your child in the car. That's something that happens to bad parents, right?

Wrong.

Research shows that most children that die in hot cars are left there unintentionally by a parent or other caregiver, and that those parents are by all other indications thoughtful, attentive and loving.  So how does it happen?

A change in the routine. 

In virtually every studied incident, there was a change in the routine.  A fight at home.  A detour on the way.  A parent driving the child that normally does not, at least at that time of day. Driving a different car.  It could be anything.

Refuse to take a chance!

As parents we can look at each other and say "This will never happen to us!" 

Car Seat is a brutally simple app.  Once installed, it detects that you are moving faster than you can run, and it arms itself.  Once armed, the app then waits for you to stop.  If you are stopped for more than three minutes, it goes off, asking "Is everyone out of your car?"  You must answer, or the app continues to alarm.  The only way to turn it off is to answer "Yes."  Car Seat is very simple, and very effective.

Unlike other apps and devices, Car Seat does not rely on tricky bluetooth connections, and Car Seat requires no other hardware to work.  All you need is a smartphone with GPS capability and a desire to be sure this never happens to you!