Leaving children in the car

Why do people leave their children in the car? Yet another case happened recently in Austin. A child was found dead in a parking lot at Freescale. Apparently, the 18 month old child's parents exchanged cars on that fateful day. The father, unaware his child was in the car seat, parked the car and proceeded to work.

Shortly afterwards, someone else parked next to the man' car. The driver of the second car notified Freescale security who then searched for the car but didn't find it. Hours later, someone else found the deceased child in the car and called 9-11.

So who screwed up in this case? Bearing in mind that I'm not intimately familiar with the details of the case, it seems to me at least the following people let the poor child down.

• The mother didn't let her husband know she'd already put the child in the car.
• The father didn't notice his child was in the car.
• Apparently, the child was normally taken to child care. The child care providers did not contact anyone when the child was absent.
• The first person who saw the child when he was still alive did notify someone who should have been able to handle the situation but didn't follow up.
• Security at Freescale failed in their search of the car and failed to follow up.

Back to my original point, I can't imagine something like this happening to a reasonable parent. This is not like losing a cell phone.

Why do people use cell phones in the restroom? They shouldn't do that, should they?