Mother with experience spreads awareness of leaving children in hot cars

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - In the last two days, two children passed away after being left in a hot car.

On Sunday, police say the death of Josiah Riggins happened at an apartment complex near Gilbert Road and Main Road.

Officers say, like the incident the day before, it appears to be an accident.

It's a problem we see all too often.

Fox 10 Phoenix reached out to a valley mom who has made it her mission with kidsandcars.org to educate the public after it happened to her -- something she says could happen to anyone.

"I wish that I could teach people that this can happen to anyone. It has happened to all walks of life -- doctors, principals, and teachers and rich people and poor people. It doesn't matter who you are, you are not immune to this happening," said Beth Brown.

Brown says 10 years ago, her husband accidentally left their daughter in their vehicle. An hour had gone by when Brown realized she was still in the car.

"I felt like I needed to feed her. He forgot that he had her with him, when we found her she was alive, but she died the next day in the hospital," Brown said.

Brown says hearing about the two recent infant deaths brings her back to that painful day.

"The first baby was really hard for me to hear about. It just brings you right back to that place. I see comments on the internet that are horrible and it's not helpful. No one knows the whole story," Brown said.

She wants the community to understand this isn't a time to blame the parents, but a time to show compassion.

"You can't erase the pain. It's there forever. So none of this criticism is productive, and I don't think it's productive to criminalize these parents either," Brown said.

Brown also says that if you see a child in a car in distress, you can break the window to save a life. Minutes matter.