I agree it happens sometimes, but I don't agree that this is what happens every single time when a child dies in a hot car.
Why do you think the death rate has doubled, is it a "This can never happen to me problem" or a "Careless about the baby" problem or a "I don't give a fuck" problem.
If it's all a memory thing, then there should be 2 or 3 dead babies a summer. The death rate has almost doubled in just over a month, why do you think that is? As much as this is in the news, why is it still happening so much? There needs to be a study on that.
Honestly a few of the recent ones raise my eyebrows and they don't fall into FBS. There seems to be an increase of out right neglect with more than a few of the recents. Like the cops wife who was napping and the other family who looked for 2.5 hours without calling anyone. Neither of those are FBS, even though the children died in hot vehicles, their parents didn't put them in and leave them - they just simply neglected them. Being high on drugs or drunk also doesn't qualify one for FBS. Neither does leaving a child in the car while you run into Walmart.
What I found the most interesting in all these studies is that America leads in this phenomena. It's not that it doesn't happen in other countries, it does. But at way lower rates. A lot don't end as a fatality either. There has never been a FBS death in the UK. People have forgotten their children but they always remember in enough time to get the child before anything fatal happens.
I think this warrants international studies, which have never been done. I have a few personal opinions of why it happens in the US and less in other places. Mostly it comes down to way of life. Europe has a very different mentality than across the pond. It's slowly changing with the times to become more Americanized, but for the most part family units are very traditional in their values and life is calmer and not as stressful.
With small children it's very common for only one parent to be working. Only recently have you seen spikes in dual income families with small children. And a lot of times if they are dual income the mother(or stay at home dad) only work after the child reaches school age (3-4 in most places) and they work part time at menial jobs.
A lot of the FBS cases in the EU involve parents forgetting their children at places, not in vehicles. I think some of this happens because vehicle ownership is a different here as well. Public transport is more commonly used here. A lot of families only own one car. A family vehicle is almost always a very small car or station wagon and window tinting is very rare to see.
FBS seems to happen most often when there is more than one person responsible for juggling the daily routines. You seldom see a FBS death with a single parent or in families were one is a stay at home parent.