AMONG proposals received by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to prevent deaths of children left in vehicles is to ban tinted vehicle windows.
Another idea, said its minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri, is for kindergartens or nurseries to contact the parents of children who are absent.
This follows the death of three children in the last two months after they were left alone in a vehicle.
“I am aware of such cases and we are working on enhancing the current standard operating procedures (SOP) to prevent recurrences.
“The Forgotten Baby Syndrome is indeed worrying, and we certainly want to prevent hot car deaths,” she said after a media night in Kuching, yesterday.
She said she has been under pressure to take action to address such cases but clarified that she could only act within the purview of her ministry.
“As I mentioned earlier, we have been receiving numerous proposals, but I cannot implement them all as they come under other ministries,” she said.
However, she said she will work with those concerned to formulate better SOPs to put an end to such cases.
In the most recent incident, a 2-year-old girl died last Wednesday after she was left alone in a vehicle for eight hours.
Initial investigations revealed that the mother had dropped off two of her other children at about 7am at a school nearby.
After that, she proceeded to the child’s kindergarten. However, when she arrived, she received a call, believed to be about her online business, and forgot about the child in the car.
Last month, a 16-month-old baby girl died after she was found unconscious in a car at a public university in Kuala Nerus, Kuala Terengganu.
Initial investigations revealed that the victim’s father had forgotten to send the baby to the daycare centre at the university campus before going to work at the same university.
In early October, an 8-month-old baby girl died after she was left in a car parked at the Canselor Tuanku Muhriz Hospital in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.
The girl was mistakenly left in the vehicle when her mother, a doctor at the hospital, went to work thinking that she had already sent the child to a daycare centre. – The Vibes, November 13, 2023
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