After a record number of deaths last year — 52 — and 29 so far this year, pressure is building on Congress to pass the Hot Cars Act of 2019 to try to head off any more infant and toddler tragedies.

This bipartisan legislation was introduced in July in both houses of Congress and would require all new passenger vehicles in the United States to come with standard equipment designed to help prevent child deaths from heatstroke.

The most recent deaths occurred Tuesday in Moultrie, Georgia, when a 21-month-old child was found inside an SUV, and on July 26 in the Bronx, when a father forgot his year-old twins in the back seat of his vehicle for eight hours. When he returned, they were dead. Both incidents were labeled by police as “tragic accidents.”

It seems inconceivable that more than 800 children have died in this manner in the past two decades. Many of these cases involved neglect, but there were nearly half where loving and caring parents just flat-out forgot that they had their child or children with them.

Believe me, I am as amazed as you are by this information. I spoke to a number of parents who are equally skeptical, so I decided to do some research to confirm that this has occurred.

Dr. Emily Thomas, automotive safety engineer for Consumer Reports magazine, said that research shows that it is a flaw in the way our memory systems work, especially when there is a change in routine, when we are distracted or go on autopilot and need help jogging our memory.

Up until the early 1990s, these types of deaths were much rarer, because children were in the front seat with the driver. That’s when it was determined that passenger-side front air bags could kill children, so the recommendation was to move the child to the back seat.

Another safety move, especially for infants, was to position the child’s seat to the rear so the child is facing away from the driver.

Virtually no one foresaw the consequences of these well-intentioned safety moves. When you come right down to it: What parent would forget his or her child, the most important thing in the world?

Of course, we have all heard of the cases of the reckless parents who left their children locked in a hot vehicle while they gambled at a casino or those who ran into a store to buy several items while the child was sweltering in the car or other instances such as these.

The rapid rise in the interior car temperature is critical to understand. In just 10 minutes, a car’s interior temperature can rise nearly 20 degrees. The rapid rise in temperature is dangerous for a child, according to Dr. Andrew Miller, emergency physician with Lehigh Valley Physicians Group.

“A child’s body temperature rises faster than an adult’s. This leads to a child becoming dehydrated and suffering a heatstroke, which can cause permanent brain or organ damage, or even death,” he says. A core body temperature of 107 degrees can be fatal.

In his Pulitzer-prize-winning feature story in The Washington Post, reporter Gene Weingarten explains in his carefully researched article that those who have forgotten their children make up a cross-section of the population.

He wrote: “The wealthy do 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. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate.

“It has happened to a dentist, postal clerk, social worker, police officer, accountant, soldier, paralegal, electrician, Protestant clergyman, rabbinical student, nurse, construction worker, assistant principal, mental health counselor, college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician, even a rocket scientist.”

I am pleading with you to take this common-sense advice from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation:

• Make a habit of looking in the vehicle — front and back — before locking the door and walking away.

• Ask the child-care provider to call if the child doesn’t show up for care as expected.

• Place your purse or briefcase in the back seat to ensure your child isn’t accidentally left in the vehicle.

• Write a note or place a stuffed animal in the passenger’s seat to remind you that a child is in the vehicle.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com