Now that it’s officially summer, the weather is heating up. While that’s good news for those who love to swim and sunbathe, the heat also brings a level of danger. If you’ve ever gotten in a car after it has been sitting in the sun, you know that it’s very uncomfortable. After just ten minutes in the sun, a car can heat up by 19 degrees. As adults, sitting in a hot car for a few minutes isn’t ideal, but for young children, it’s downright deadly.
Did you know that on average, every ten days a child dies from heatstroke in a vehicle? The majority of the time, the child’s caregiver forgot the child was in the back seat of the car and exited the vehicle without the child.
Extreme temperatures are more dangerous for children because their bodies aren’t developed enough yet to regulate their body temperature like adults. Their little bodies heat up three to five times faster than an adult’s body. Children have died from heatstroke in a vehicle when the temperature outside was as low as 57 degrees Fahrenheit. Cracking a window isn’t enough to keep a child safe.
Safe Kids has developed a way to help reduce the number of deaths from heatstroke by remembering to ACT:
- Avoid heatstroke-related injury by never leaving a child alone in a car, not even for a minute. Keep your car locked when you’re not using it so that kids don’t climb in by themselves. About 25% of pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths occurred because the child gained access to the vehicle on their own.
- Create reminders to help you remember there’s a child in the car. This can be especially important for someone who doesn’t regularly drive the child around and may easily forget they’re there. Some people keep a stuffed animal in the child’s car seat when it’s empty, and move the stuffed animal to the front as a visual reminder when there’s a child in the seat. You could also put something you need in the back, like your cell phone or wallet, so that when you get out of the car, you’ll have to check the back seat first.
- Take action. If you see a child alone in a car, call 911. They will walk you through what to do next. As we mentioned above, when children die from heatstroke in the car, over half of the time it’s because the driver forgot the child was there. It’s not nosey or uncalled for to be concerned about a child left alone in a hot car.
With rising temperatures this summer, it’s important to do everything we can to make sure children are safe. While only 20 states have laws that specifically say it’s illegal to leave a child unattended in a vehicle, it’s not safe in any state for any amount of time. 853 children have died due to heatstroke in a vehicle since 1998. There are countless near-misses. These deaths are preventable.
Now that it’s officially summer, the weather is heating up. While that’s good news for those who love to swim and sunbathe, the heat also brings a level of danger. If you’ve ever gotten in a car after it has been sitting in the sun, you know that it’s very uncomfortable. After just ten minutes in the sun, a car can heat up by 19 degrees. As adults, sitting in a hot car for a few minutes isn’t ideal, but for young children, it’s downright deadly.