Their children died in hot cars – now they’re fighting for legislation to stop it happening again

Since 1990, more than 900 children have died in the back of hot cars in the US. It's worse in summer, and climate change is exacerbating the problem. Chris Stevenson meets the grieving parents campaigning for new laws and new technology

Juan and Marissa Rodriguez with son Tristan leaving Bronx Criminal Court in New York on Thursday (AP)

Do you have a doll in the back of your car?” was the question that sparked the most visceral reaction Miles Harrison will likely ever experience. Harrison was coming to the end of a string of busy days involving a 700-mile round trip from his home in Virginia to Ohio to show his parents his new son, Chase, whom he and his wife Carol had just adopted from Russia. That morning, he’d dropped by the dry cleaners before heading to a hectic day at the office.

The question caused a wave of nausea to flow over Harrison and he gagged, realising what had happened, before running to his car. In the back was Chase, nearly two years old. The doting father, who had spent the past six weeks bonding with his new son after his arrival in the US, was meant to take Chase to daycare, but had forgotten to take the exit on the highway. He then parked his car and headed into work, believing whole-heartedly he had dropped his son off.

But here, around 5pm, was the evidence that he hadn’t. “I could see the outline of a baby in the back seat,” he says, “and I knew it was him.” The result was blind panic as Harrison “fell apart”. “I started screaming and I ripped him out of his car seat and rushed inside screaming incoherently,” he says, his voice quivering. “Someone eventually took him from my arms as I was just running around screaming ‘Oh God, not him, take me, take me’.”