As the heat rises in the summer, so do instances of children dying by hyperthermia, or “heat stroke,” because they are left in a vehicle unattended. According to Lorrie Walker, a training manager and technical advisor for Safe Kids USA, that is the leading cause of non-traffic deaths for kids.
Walker says that it doesn’t have to be a scorcher of a day to be dangerous for kids, because the temperature in a car can go up much higher than it is outside – and it only continues to rise with time – and for kids, the effects are far worse than for adults.
“A child’s body temperature heats up three to five times faster than that of an adult. So, an adult might be able to sit in there and just be hot, but not be dangerously overheated, where a young child is in danger.”
Walker says that it is not safe to leave a child in a vehicle, even if a window is cracked.
Walker says kids are left in vehicles for a variety of reasons – sometimes adults think it will only be for a minute or two and become distracted; sometimes kids wander into unlocked cars themselves – but she says some adults think it’s safe to do.
“The car is not a babysitter, and it’s not a recreation area. There’s no good that can come from leaving a child alone in a car, for any amount of time, ever.”
She adds that leaving a child in a car is not always intentional: about 50 percent of the cases involve parents or caregivers who are super-busy, and simply become very distracted.
“They’re thinking about what they need to do next and they don’t even give the back seat a second thought. They pull up where they’re going, shut off the car, lock the door, and head off to the office or school or wherever it is they’re headed.”
Walker says some good ways to remind yourself are to leave your wallet, purse or cell – whatever needs to go with you that day – next to the child seat, or set an alarm on your cell phone or PDA to remind you to drop off the kids at day care or school.
When temperatures outside exceed 86 degrees F, the internal temperatures of the vehicle can quickly reach 134 to 154 degrees F. Heat stroke may occur when a body temperature passes 104 degrees Fahrenheit. This can overwhelm the brain’s temperature control, causing symptoms such as dizziness, disorientation, agitation, confusion, seizure, and/or death.
On average, 38 children die in hot cars each year from heat-related deaths after being trapped inside motor vehicles.
Think the heat is bad on us? How about your pet?
Each year, countless animals die because they are left in cars on warm, not just hot, days. Most people don’t realize how quickly the temperature in a car rises, making even a five-minute errand a dangerous situation for a pet left in a parked car. The temperature inside a car can rise as much as 19 degrees in 10 minutes.
Summer Heat + Kids and/or Pets Alone in Cars could equal Deadly Combinations
