This week in Boston, a man left his 1-year-old daughter locked in his SUV in a Quincy parking lot outside the MBTA Red Line, forgetting that the sleeping baby was in the back seat. Already on the train, the panicked dad called 911 as soon as he realized his mistake. Thankfully, for once, this all-too-familiar story has a happy ending as police were able to get into the locked vehicle, where the little girl was still safely sleeping on a mild day. No charges were filed, and the father and daughter were able to go home, relieved and grateful. The father told local Boston news station WCBV:

“Like many parents, I have a very repetitive morning procedure that involves two day care dropoffs and a Red Line ride,” the man said in a statement to WCVB.

He said he dropped his older child off at school and then forgot to take his baby to an in-home day care center.

“The baby had fallen asleep in the child seat, and I went into autopilot. I had what I thought was a safeguard procedure against this in place that I neglected to use today. Obviously, we will be doing more to prevent this going forward,” the man said.

Just the day before the happy ending in Massachusetts, a Florida family wasn’t so fortunate. Also believing that he’d dropped his daughter off at daycare, a Lake City father left his 16-month-old daughter in his car. Unlike the Boston story, and like so many stories we hear, the father didn’t realize until that afternoon that his daughter had been left in the car all day, and she was discovered dead in her car seat.

There are few parents, I think, who can’t identify with these stories, even as they are sure it could never happen to them. You hear again and again and again horrible stories of children mistakenly left in cars, assumed to be safe at daycare or in the backyard before they are discovered too late, dead of heat stroke. According to kidsandcars.org, it happens an average of 38 times per year. Every time news of these deaths  breaks, parents all over social media swear that they’d never let this sort of thing happen. Certainly, some of these deaths are cases of neglect, where a parent or caretaker was drunk or on drugs, but even the best parents can slip up once, and when the interior of a car can reach 110 degrees on a 60 degree day, one slip up is all it takes for a situation to turn deadly--according to the NHTSA, a child will die once his or her temperature reaches 107 degrees. The Boston father was conscientious, even having a safeguard procedure in place. The simple fact is that humans make mistakes, and there’s no way to 100% guarantee you won’t forget something, even your child. As the mother of a 16-month-old myself, my heart breaks reading these stories, and I’m wondering--where are the smart car seats?

I was able to find only one car seat that was marketed as a smart car seat--and it’s discontinued. The TOMY First Years Car Seat with iAlert technology is no longer in production because the manufacturer apparently decided not to make car seats anymore. The First Years car seat worked through a series of temperature, angle, and motion sensors that could communicate with a smartphone. While the consumer reviews for the seat were mixed, the concept was promising: if the seat became too hot, it would send an alarm to your phone. You would also be alerted if the seat is installed improperly, or if the child unbuckled themselves while the car is in motion (New parent interjection: Good grief; when do they start doing that?!). As of this writing, there are no other options for a car seat on the market.

Every day we read about a new amazing technological development in the auto world. Last week the first driverless semi took to the roads, and autonomous cars are expected to rule the highways within the next 15 years. Cars can park themselves and Google things for you. Baby technology isn’t slouching, either--at least not when you can buy a variety of monitors with infrared technology. There are literally smart diapers now, which test a baby’s urine for possible health issues and send that info to a parent’s smartphone. It’s considered a given now that there are apps for absolutely everything. With all of the miraculous strides in technology, and sensors in particular, how is it that saving kids’ lives isn’t a priority?

Smart car seats aren’t necessarily the answer, especially since nearly half of the children who die in hot cars every year weren’t in car seats--older kids get locked in cars, too. CBS looked into the issue last year and found a few other technological possibilities for child safety, among them wireless proximity sensors or GPS units. The problem with these is that you’re still relying on human infallibility, because you have to always remember to use them perfectly. For example, the Baby Alert's ChildMinder SoftClip System Digital Wireless Technology Monitor is too fallible a system to truly put your mind at ease:

The problem with this type of system, according to safety expert Arbogast, is that most deaths happen when there is a change in routine. For example, the person who usually drops the child off to daycare doesn't do it that day. "If you are relying on a key fob, you need to remember to transfer the key fob to someone else. It is easy to break the chain."

And, in a 2012 study conducted by Arbogast for the NHTSA, it was concluded that none of the available technology is anything close to a panacea, as the current options were described as "inconsistent and unreliable in their performance" because they require too much effort from caregivers to operate correctly--after all, what we need is something that takes the pressure off of the parent to never mess up. What’s worse about the current options is that they could give the illusion of a foolproof backup, which might make a caregiver less likely to double-check the back seat with their own eyes. If we’ve learned anything from these terrible stories, it’s that it only takes one time, just one forgetful day, one slip-up, for tragedy to occur.

Given the insane amount of money that people are willing to spend on their kids’ safety (I know I spent an embarrassing amount of money on my daughter’s car seat, and it doesn’t communicate with me at all), it’s hard to understand what’s stopping the market for coming up with a solution to this problem. Maybe the answer isn’t smart car seats. Maybe the technology will come as a feature of smart cars--perhaps sensors that can be programmed to tell you when someone is still in the back seat when the doors are locked or the temperature is rising. All I know is that there is absolutely a market for this, the technology appears to be there already (once some kinks are worked out), and all we can do as consumers is hope for a solution.

Clearly, it will be a while before life-saving technology for babies in cars is a commonplace possibility. In the meantime, there are things you can do to keep your kids safe. The NHTSA has a variety of resources on safercar.gov, including the catchy phrase “Look before you lock,” among other tips:

Always Look Before You Lock

• Always check the back seats of your vehicle before your lock it and walk away.

• Keep a stuffed animal or other memento in your child’s car seat when it’s empty, and move it to the front seat as a visual reminder when your child is in the back seat.

• If someone else is driving your child, or your daily routine has been altered, always check to make sure your child has arrived safely.

Keep in Mind a Child’s Sensitivity to Heat

• In 10 minutes, a car’s temperature can rise over 20 degrees.

• Even at an outside temperature of 60 degrees, the temperature inside your car can reach 110 degrees.

• A child dies when his/her body temperature reaches 107 degrees.