Where's Baby? Look before you lock!
How it Happens
Useful Links
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration https://www.nhtsa.gov/campaign/heatstroke
- Department of Geosciences – San Francisco State Universitywww.ggweather.com/heat/
- Safe Kids Worldwidehttps://www.safekids.org/heatstroke
- Kids and Cars Safetyhttps://www.kidsandcars.org/
- No Heat Stroke https://www.noheatstroke.org/
Hot Car Deaths can Happen to Your Family
This unthinkable tragedy has happened to thousands of parents. And not one of them thought it could ever happen to them. Because when a child is left in a hot car, it’s not a failure of love or responsibility. It’s a failure of memory. An attentive, caring parent gets lost in routine and forgets to drop off their child at school. Forgets to go to daycare first. Or doesn’t realize the child is in the vehicle in the first place. It’s hard to imagine, but it happens, almost once every week. The first step to preventing it is believing that it can happen to you.
Not All Hot Car Deaths are Failures of Memory
More than half (56%) of all hot car deaths occurred because a parent or caregiver unknowingly left the child. These deaths are so preventable. Never leave a child in a car unattended. Not for a few minutes. Not with the window cracked. Not in the shade. Not ever. Heat stroke can kill faster than you think. And always lock your car doors. Even if you think your kids are old enough to get out. Even if you’ll only be a minute. Even if you don’t have kids. Do whatever it takes to ensure this never happens to you or someone you love.
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- More than 1,050 children have died in hot cars nationwide since 1990.
- The average number of U.S. child hot car deaths is 38 per year (one every 9 days.)
- More than 88% of children who have died in a hot car are age 3 and younger.
- 55% of heat stroke deaths occur because a caregiver unknowingly left the child in the vehicle.
- Approximately 43% of children who were unknowingly left were supposed to have been dropped off at child care.
- Roughly 25% of heat stroke deaths occur because the child got in the car without a caregiver knowing and couldn’t get out.
- Nearly 15% of deaths occur because a caregiver intentionally left the child in the car.
- The inside of a vehicle heats up VERY quickly. 80% of the increase in inside temperature happens in the first 10 minutes.
- Even with the windows cracked, the temperature inside a car can reach 125 degrees in minutes.
- Cracking the windows or not parking in direct sunlight does not help slow the heating process OR decrease the maximum temperature. Heat stroke deaths have occurred even when the vehicle was parked in shade.
- Heat stroke can take place when the outside temperature is as low as 60 degrees.
- The body temperatures of children can increase three to five times faster than adults. Heat stroke begins when the body passes 104 degrees. Reaching an internal temperature of 107 degrees can be deadly.
*Source: Kids and Car Safety
What You Can Do
- Never leave a child alone in a motor vehicle.
- Make a habit of checking your back seat.
- When strapping a child into a car seat, leave a reminder like a cell phone or even your left shoe in back with them.
- If you see a child unattended in a vehicle, call 911.
- After parking your car, lock it. Children who get inside an unlocked vehicle can become trapped.
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