Justin Smith

Blog 5

COMS220

3/25/11

            Have you ever been distracted? Well, of course you have. We all have at one point or another. Sometimes we’re distracted from little things, and sometimes we’re distracted from things of much greater importance. But has your distraction ever led to the death of an innocent child? The article titled, “Fatal Distraction,”

written by Gene Weingarten focuses on numerous instances of parents forgetting their children in their cars, and the children dying of hyperthermia (a form of heat-stroke) as a result.

This article was not an easy one to read, but I believe that it was extremely well written and practical to the public as a whole. The central idea is that people, through a slue of unexpected distractions or out-of-the-ordinary routine changes, can become so distracted that they forget even their child in the back seat of their car, go about their day, and return several hours later to find a dead baby in the back seat. Many ask, “What kind of person forgets a baby?” The article returns and says that, “the wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers.”

Despite the seriousness and morbidity of this article, I felt it was a good feature article. It focused mainly on a court case of a man who had accidentally left his child in his car one hot summer day. The child had died, and the jury was deliberating on whether to accuse this man as guilty of manslaughter. It was a dreadful and dramatic case, but in the end, the man was ruled not guilty, and despite the child’s death, the article ended on a good note.

I think it’s important that the public realize the dangers of distraction, especially when young ones are involved. The result of distraction could prove to be fatal.