For two dads, the most horrifying of all realisations dawned on them after a busy day at work. Now, as CANDACE SUTTON reports, an expert warns: This could happen to any of us

By CANDACE SUTTON, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER, AUSTRALIA Published: 23:01, 20 April 2026 | Updated: 23:10, 20 April 2026 For the father of a 14-month-old girl known as 'O', it was simply a matter of going about his business in heavy traffic 'on auto pilot' and a stressful, work-heavy week that saw him leave his daughter strapped in his car outside for nine hours in 30 degree heat. It was at 5.31pm on February 4, 2025 when the little girl's devastated dad realised, outside a southwestern Sydney child care centre, that she hadn't attended that day, had been left behind in her car seat, and could not be revived. It was on an even hotter early February day in 2023 when another father took his two sons, aged seven and three, on their usual drop off run. He dropped the older boy at a Glenfield primary school in Sydney's far southwest. On that morning, the dad was distracted from his usual delivery of his three-year-old to childcare by a side trip to the petrol station, after which he went home to work on his computer as a finance officer. It was only when he went to collect his seven-year-old from school at 2.38pm and they walked to a nearby shop to buy ingredients for dinner, that he made 'the terrible observation' his younger son was still in the vehicle. Like with O's father, he tried CPR and police and paramedics arrived, but his little boy, known legally as A, was dead. The father of A and his wife were in the court on Monday for the start of an inquest into the two children's deaths in tragically similar circumstances with coroner, Judge Rebecca Hosking, telling the parents of both deceased children that 'the pain would be immeasurable', but she hoped to find answers. Cognitive neuro-scientist Professor Muireann Irish was called to explain how people's brains can affect their memories, particularly under stress and the 'constant bombardment' of technology. The mother and father are seen with baby 'O', celebrating her first birthday. She died after being left in the back of a car when she was 14-months-old Baby O's father is seen after the tragedy, on right She refused to call the cases 'Forgotten Baby Syndrome' - which they are sometimes called - arguing that was mythologising memory problems 'which happen to us all'. The parents of O were late and rushed on the morning before their daughter's death, the usual drop-off time delayed, and the traffic was distracting, along with the father's large work project due in three days. A's parents had been up late with a visitor, leaving his dad more tired in the morning. Both children were found unresponsive in their parents' cars in the mid to late afternoon, most likely having died from hyperthermia or heatstroke. Investigating police found both children were 'very well-loved and cared for', the parents were 'devastated' and co-operated fully with police. Professor Irish told the court that human brains liked 'shortcuts' so as to give themselves a rest and act in the most efficient way.  The National Health & Medical Research Council professorial fellow at University of Sydney said: 'Because of pressure on the brain to deal with information, cognitive shortcuts allow us to be highly efficient, like when you brush your teeth, or drive to work on the same route you can proceed automatically. 'But there is a thing called prospective memory, when might have planned to buy milk on the way home but you forget and go straight home. The distraught father of 'A' is seen after the terrible realisation he had left his son inside a hot car 'You might make a phone call and forget you have something in the oven. Then you get a trigger, externally, or it might just bubble up within you and you remember to do it.   'But we are constantly juggling various sources of information. We are in a state of constant information processing.' She said this 'information overload' was a fact of modern life and if someone was stressed, tired or overworked they could easily have their prospective memory overridden. Prof Irish said that in the case of AH's father, that 'his intention to drop (AH) off that day was overrided by that alert, the need to get petrol, which can knock other intentions lower down in the chain.  'With the petrol task completed, the car emerged on the homeward-bound road. 'This context-dependant memory can instill habitual routine behaviour and you can proceed and there is no indication that anything out of the ordinary has happened.' She said that in the case of O, there was 'more traffic than usual, an additional workload, the fact they were running late and a new job weighing on the father’s mind.' She said that after dropping off his wife at the train station, he had been 'facing in the direction of home, facing more traffic, which set in motion a habitual, automatic need to return home. He was sleep deprived and work pressured.' Both children had been asleep in their respective cars. This, Prof Irish said, was 'the really tragic part.  'There were no other circuit breakers, no audio cues from the back of car. The car where A was found in February 2023, above  She also said there had been no update from the day care centre in either case that neither child had arrived. That is one of the most important ideas to come forth to prevent future tragedies.  Christine Erskine, the Executive Officer of Kidsafe NSW, testified that this should be considered in recommendations emanating from the inquest. She said little real data on child deaths in cars existed in Australia but the average in NSW was one per year. The court heard that most child vehicle deaths, according to US statistics, were from accidentally being left in a car. The majority of those were on day care drop-offs, in the summer months and hotter southern US states. Judge Hosking noted that the children had been strapped in the rear of their parents' vehicles and that practice had arisen during the 1990s following children being killed by airbags inflating after an accident. Ms Erskine agreed that education campaign centres around preventing parents from deliberately leaving their children in vehicles could be a worthy measure. The inquest will hear on Monday afternoon from Mark Terrell of the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, ANCAP, about child presence detection technology being built into new vehicles.  No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. 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