Andrew Krespanis
A mum whose toddler died after being left in a hot car will have her case examined this week following claims she made the mistake after being dangerously ‘sleep deprived.’
Noah Zunde was only 22 months old when his little body was found inside a car parked outside a childcare centre in Kyneton, Victoria, on February 19, 2015.
Daily Mail report that the inquest will hear that Noah’s mother was sleep deprived, and thought she had dropped her boy inside. However seven hours later she discovered he wasn’t inside the childcare centre, and made the horrifying discovery that he was still in the car.
Associate Professor in psychology at Monash University, Matthew Mundy, is expected to appear as a witness, after providing the coroner reports to back up how mentally a mother could forget her child in the car.
He says evidence suggests that Noah’s mother suffered memory failure as a result of being sleep deprived.
The childcare centre back up the mum, saying they are certain she believed her boy to be safe inside.
Writing in the Washington Post on tragic cases of children dying after being forgotten in cars, Gene Weingarten says that this was relatively rare 20 years ago, but incidences are on the rise.
Weingarten argues this is due to front seats being declared unsafe for baby capsules due to airbags – and so children are in the back seat and more likely to be forgotten.
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