With temperatures reaching their annual peak, so are tragic stories of children dying when left in hot cars, including a tragic case out of Kansas just last week and a headline-grabbing case in Georgia earlier this summer. While those cases reflect a dismal summertime trend across the nation, hot car deaths are a problem in Florida all year round.
According to Safe Kids Palm Beach County and the Children’s Services Council, so far this year, at least 17 children have died from heatstroke while unattended in vehicles, including two in Florida. Florida is second in the nation in heatstroke fatalities with at least 68 Florida children losing their lives since 1998.
Each of these cases is a tragedy, and too often we blame the parent and move on, not realizing that in our always-rushing, distracted modern lives, a momentary lapse in judgment or memory could make our loved one the next poster child.
Kudos to Safe Kids and the Children’s Services Council for putting their focus on this preventable tragedy and getting the facts out to the public. For example, many people are shocked to learn how hot the inside of a car can actually get. On an 80-degree day, the temperature inside of a car can rise 20 degrees in as little as 10 minutes and keep getting hotter with each passing minute. When a child’s internal temperature reaches 104 degrees, major organs begin to shut down, and when that temperature reaches 107 degrees, the child can die.
We join these local organizations in support of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s heatstroke education campaign, “Where’s baby? Look before you lock.” This has led to increased national coordination on the issue. Parents, caregivers and bystanders are encouraged to help reduce the number of heatstroke deaths by remembering to ACT.
A: Avoid heatstroke-related injury and death by never leaving a child alone in a car, not even for a minute. Make sure to keep your car locked when you’re not in it so kids don’t get in on their own.
C: Create reminders by putting something in the back of the car next to young passengers, such as a briefcase, a purse or a cell phone that is needed at your final destination. This is especially important when you are not following your normal routine.
T: Take action. If you see a child alone in a car, call 911. Emergency personnel are trained to respond to these situations. One call could save a life.
Learn more on this important topic at www.safekids.org/heatstroke.
