(EVANSTON, Indiana) Despite their own personal tragedy, Jamie Dill and her husband, Andrew, are reaching out in hopes of preventing the same avoidable loss in other families.
3 years ago, Andrew Dill was out of his normal routine—he was scheduled to drop off their three-year-old son Oliver, “Ollie,” at preschool before work. Unfortunately, dad was on autopilot that day and forgot to drop Ollie off. Ollie was accidentally left in the hot car all day.
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Ollie lost his life as their vehicle heated up from the sun.
On average, 38 children are lost in overheated cars each year.
Determined to stop this, the Dills started ‘Be Kind for Ollie,’ a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the dangers of leaving children or pets in hot cars.
The Dills have also started three little lending libraries for grieving families--two of them are in cemeteries "because families that are grieving do not want to go anywhere in the public...bookstores, libraries...some families don't even want to go to the grocery store because it reminds them of their loved one..." Jamie says.
The family is active in sharing about hot car death prevention at various events, passing out information on "Look Before You Lock" programs. They're also advocating for legislation for back seat detection and alert systems to become standard in new cars by 2025.
The Dills suggest doing things like opening the back door every time you park, to ensure no one is in the back seat and/or putting your work ID, briefcase, phone, or your shoes in the backseat before you leave for work.
"Unfortunately, sometimes we do go on autopilot and go straight to our office and unfortunately some people forget that the child is in the backseat," Jamie said.
"Another suggestion is to clearly announce and confirm who is getting each child out of the vehicle. Sometimes miscommunication can lead to everyone thinking someone else has removed the child from the vehicle. Another way to ask your child care provider to call you if your child hasn't arrived as scheduled," Jamie suggested.
Jamie is quick to warn us that this tragedy could happen to anyone.
Mom Jamie says “it still is devastating. That’s one of the reasons we started 'Be Kind for Ollie.' We don’t want any other family to go through what we have gone through.”