Father’s plea after three-year-old son dies in hot car in Glenfield

Little Arikh Hasan couldn’t be saved – but his distraught dad has explained the circumstances of how he forgot his youngest child in his car, in the hope it may prevent a similar tragedy. Here is his heartbreaking story.

The father who left his toddler in a car for six hours on a 35 degree day has made a heartbreaking plea to other parents to be “120 per cent sure where your kids are” so the same tragedy never happens to another family.

Arikh Hasan, 3, died last Thursday when his father Newaz Hasan forgot to drop him to daycare at Glenfield, in Sydney’s south west, and instead drove straight to work, leaving his son strapped in a car restraint in scorching heat.

A devastated Mr Hasan agreed to tell The Daily Telegraph the chilling circumstances that lead to him forgetting the boy in the hope it may prevent a similar tragedy happening to another child.

“If I can help another parent be more alert so this doesn’t happen again, then that is something positive to come from this,” he said.

The morning school and daycare run was something Mr Hasan had done each day for the past 18-months, and last Thursday should have been no different.

Arikh Hasan, three, (far right) pictured with his brother, his mother Marzia and father Newaz.

The father put his two sons, aged six and three, in the Toyota Corolla sedan and drove less than five kilometres to Glenfield Public School.

He waved off his older boy, then prepared to drive to daycare for the second drop off.

Newaz with his sons.

But a poor night’s sleep on Wednesday for Arikh meant the little boy dozed off in the back seat, and Mr Hasan believes the unusual silence in the car could be partly behind the tragedy.

“I would normally talk to my son on the way to daycare, you know, we would chat...but because he was asleep this day, the car was silent,” Mr Hasan said.

“I think that silence just made me forget he was there.”

The senior banking analyst spent the next six hours working from his home office while the car was parked in a cul-de-sac outside the house with Arikh strapped inside.

Flowers and soft toys continued to pile up on Tuesday in the Glenfield street where little Arikh Hasan died last Thursday when he was pulled from a hot car but couldn’t be revived. Picture” John Grainger

Mr Hasan said the car was fitted with child safety locks on the rear doors which would have prevented Arikh from opening one even if he managed to free himself from the car seat restraint.

Chillingly, Mr Hasan then got back in the vehicle just before 3pm to go and collect his older child and didn’t realise Arikh was in the back seat.

“I drove again and parked outside the shops and I walked up to get my older son…When I came back and I opened the back door to put my boy in, then I saw (Arikh),” he said.

Ambulance officers were called but were unable to save Arikh’s life. Picture: Jonathan Ng

A distraught Mr Hasan is pictured with his head in his hands moments after paramedics said his boy could not be saved. Blood is seen dripping down his arm after he punched the car window out of sheer distress. Picture: TNV

The father grabbed his unconscious child from the seat and rushed him into a nearby shop where he performed CPR until paramedics arrived, but Arikh died at the scene.

Out of sheer distress in the aftermath of finding his boy, Mr Hasan punched a window of the car and was treated for injuries to his hand.

“Even talking about it now, I still don’t really know how it happened...There was nothing on my mind, I wasn’t distracted, nothing...I just forgot,” Mr Hasan said.

“I just want to say to other parents please always be 120 per cent sure where your kids are.”

Police and ambulance paramedics at the scene. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Professor Matthew Munday from Monash University’s Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences said forgotten baby syndrome is a very real condition that exists when a parent or carer experiences short-term memory loss.

He said a distraction or a change of routine - like silence when there is normally noise - can be enough to set off the wrong autopilot pilot program and trip up your short-term memory.

Mr Hasan, his wife Marzia and their older child have not returned to the family home since the tragedy, and are staying with relatives in south-west Sydney.

“We have a lot of family support, but everyone is just in so much shock...he was the most beautiful, beautiful boy,” Mr Hasan said.

A NSW Police spokesman said Mr Hasan had been interviewed and given a full statement, and the investigation into the tragedy was ongoing.

He has not been charged.