'Loving' parents not at fault for deaths of children left in hot cars, coroner finds

Memory failure contributed to deaths of children left in hot cars, NSW coroner finds Mon 1 Jun 2026 at 12:37pm In short: The deaths of two children who had been left in cars during hot weather were the result of their parents' memory failure, a NSW coroner has found. An inquest into the separate incidents heard fatigue and stress contributed to the tragedies. What's next? The coroner has recommended the introduction of a system to require childcare centres to immediately notify parents if their child is absent. A NSW coroner has found the deaths of two children who were inadvertently left in cars during hot weather were the result of memory failure, in circumstances that could occur to the "most caring, loving parents". A coronial inquest found two children, known by the pseudonyms OVA and AN, both died from heat exposure after unintentionally being left in their family cars for an extended period of time in separate incidents in Sydney. Deputy State Coroner Rebecca Hosking found both the children's "tragic" deaths were the result of memory failure and described the parents of both children as loving and caring. "These are circumstances that can occur to the most caring, loving parent, of which all of them were in this case," Ms Hosking said. Ms Hosking cited psychological evidence provided to the inquest that in each case "chronic fatigue and stress" along with a change in routine contributed to the belief that both children had been dropped off at childcare when they had not. On Monday, the coroner made a range of recommendations, including for government agencies to expand awareness campaigns on how easily memory failures can occur. The campaigns would focus on informing the public about how parents with young children are particularly susceptible to memory failure and promoting cues to help parents remember their child is in the car, like placing the child's items on the front passenger seat or placing the parent's valuable items, like a wallet next to the child in the back seat. Ms Hosking also called on the introduction of a mandatory system, which required childcare centres to send an immediate notification to parents if their child is unexpectedly absent. 'Too late' to intervene OVA was 14 months old when her parents placed her in the back seat of their car, like any other morning, as they travelled to work in May 2025. They were running late when the father dropped OVA's mother off at the train station before making his way towards her childcare, which was in the same direction as their home. "The father was frazzled because they were late and there was more traffic," Ms Hosking told the court. The inquest heard the family was going through the process of moving at the time while the father had recently taken on a significant work project with an impending deadline. Instead of dropping OVA off at her childcare, the father drove home to start his day of work and inadvertently left his daughter in the car. While at work, the mother checked the childcare app and noticed her daughter had not been checked in for the day, but assumed staff had been too busy to update their system. The family never received a notification to inform them that OVA had not attended the centre that day. About 5pm the same day, the father left to pick up OVA from childcare while on his way to retrieve her mother from the train station. When he arrived at the childcare centre, staff were confused and the father returned to the car to find OVA still in the back seat, at which point he realised she had been there all day. "He was screaming and called an ambulance, but it was too late," Ms Hosking said. 'I couldn't believe my eyes' AN was three years old when he was placed in the back seat of the family car as his two siblings were being taken to school by their father in February 2023. The inquest heard both AN and the father went to bed later than usual the night before. After dropping off his two other children at school, the father started driving to AN's childcare, which was in the same direction as their home. On his way to the childcare centre, the father had to pull over to fill up his car at the petrol station, which the coroner said interrupted his "prospective intention" to take AN to childcare. He instead drove straight home and commenced work, unintentionally leaving AN in the car, who had quietly fallen asleep during the drive. That afternoon, the father went to pick up his two other children from school when he realised AN was still in the car. "He screamed for help, commenced CPR and splashed water on his face," Ms Hosking said. When the ambulance arrived, AN was pronounced dead at the scene and the father later told police, "I thought I dropped him off [at childcare]". "We opened the door and I couldn't believe my eyes, he was sitting in the car seat," Ms Hosking quoted. The inquest heard temperatures reached 31 degrees Celsius on the day of AN's death.