Cars, Heat, and Your Child: Raising Awareness

As the temperature is rising into the triple digits around the country, it is increasingly important to raise awareness about car safety and your child.  Your cars temperature can rise upwards of 20 degrees in as few as 10 minutes due to the greenhouse effect that the windows create.  When it is only 60 degrees outside, your car can still reach temperatures up to 110 degrees.  Young children, who already have heat regulation issues with their body due to immature respiratory systems which causes their bodies to heat almost 3 times faster than an adults, can pass away in this situation in as little as 15 minutes.  When it's over 90, as it is here today, it would be only minutes before your car reaches upwards of 120 degrees inside.  Since the beginning of this year, 18 kids have died from hyperthermia (heatstroke) in unattended cars– a record high since record keeping began in 1998. And summer has only just begun.  In June alone, there were 10 deaths.

Raising awareness and spreading the word about hot-car death is extremely important.  Many of us like to think that it could NEVER happen to us.  We're loving parents, we use baby safety methods, we dote on our children, but sadly, most instances of hot-car death happens to your average parent who has had a shift in schedule, with crazy events happening in their life.  51% of hot-car death is caused by the caregiver forgetting that the child is in the car, while only 18% is caused by a parent intentionally leaving their child in the car.

Never leave your child alone in a vehicle, even with the windows cracked and the air conditioner on.  Even "just a few minutes" can cause a tragedy that will devastate you for life.  Would you leave a million dollars in your backseat?  Because your child is worth that and more.  Take a few seconds to look in the backseat every single time that you get out of the car.  Place reminders around you, such as these window clings, which sell for 13 cents on kidsandcars.org:

Place them on your car windows, in the window by your front door, anything to jog your memory.

They also have devices that can physically remind you as well, such as the The ChildMinder^® Smart Clip System with Single-Unit Key Ring Alarm Unit, which sells for 69.95 on http://www.babyalert.info/


This device replaces the normal clip on your child's carseat harness which turns on when you put your child in the carseat.  A separate clip on your key ring will set off an alarm if you move over 15 feet away from the car without your child, serving as an audible reminder.

Raising awareness about this rising issues is greatly needed.  Already the country is at 20 deaths and it just turned July, in 2009 there were 33 deaths total, and we have barely begun to see the extreme heat of the summer.  Always check for your child, even if you weren't the one taking them to daycare or to a grandparent's house that day, it only takes a few seconds, and it's worth your child's life.

 

Other Articles:

Tragedy in the backseat: Hot-car deaths

Leaving Children In Cars Becomes a Life Or Death Issue

Death of Child Remind of Hot-Car Danger


Why Are "Good" Parents Forgetting Their Kids in Hot Cars?

Tips To Avoid A Hot-Car Tragedy:

• First and foremost, always put your cell phone, purse, or briefcase, and anything else you'll need that day, on the floor of the backseat. When you retrieve it at the end of the ride, you'll notice your child.
• Seat your younger (or quieter) child behind the front passenger seat, where he's most likely to catch your eye. Many babies were behind the driver's side when they died of hot-car syndrome.
• Keep a teddy bear or other stuffed animal in the car seat when it's empty. When you put your child in the seat, move the animal to the front passenger seat, to remind you that your baby's on board.
• Ask your child's babysitter or daycare provider to always phone you promptly if your child isn't dropped off as scheduled.
• Make a habit of always opening the back door of your car after you park, to check that there's no kid back there.
• Never assume someone else -- a spouse, an older child -- has taken a young kid out of her seat. Such miscommunication has led to more than a few hot-car deaths.

• If you are bringing your child to daycare, and normally it's your spouse or partner who brings them, have your spouse or partner call you to make sure everything went according to plan.

• Invest in a device to help you remember small passengers. The Cars-N-Kids monitor plays a lullaby when the car stops and a child is in the seat ($29.95; carsnkids.com). The ChildMinder System sounds an alarm if you walk away and leave your child in the seat ($69.95; babyalert.info).
• Put visual cues in your office and home. Static-cling decals reminding you to check the car seat are available at Emmasinspirations.com and Kidsandcars.org.
•  
• And beyond double-checking to confirm that you haven’t inadvertently forgotten a sleeping child in the car, the NHTSA also warns of the related danger of a child entering an unlocked vehicle and becoming trapped. To avoid such a preventable tragedy, make sure to always lock your car and trunk (regardless of how safe your neighborhood is!) and keep the keys out of reach.

Statistics: 
(as provided by the Department of Geosciences)

• Total number of U.S. hyperthermia deaths of children left in cars, 2010:  20
• Total number of U.S. hyperthermia deaths of children left in cars, 2009:  33
• Total number of U.S. hyperthermia deaths of children left in cars, 1998-2010:  465
• Average number of U.S. child hyperthermia fatalities per year since 1998: 37

• See Monthly Statistics
  
  Circumstances
  • 
    
    An examination of media reports about the 443 child vehicular hyperthermia deaths for an twelve year period (1998 through 2009) shows the following circumstances:
    • 51% - child "forgotten" by caregiver (228 Children)
    • 30% - child playing in unattended vehicle (131) 
    • 18% - child intentionally left in vehicle by adult  (80)
    • 
      
      1% - circumstances unknown (4)

           Ages

• 
  
  Children that have died from vehicular hyperthermia in the United States (1998-2009) have ranged in age from 5 days to 14 years.  More than half of the deaths are children under 2 years of age.  Below are the percentage of total deaths (and the number of deaths) sorted by age.

  
  

  • Less than 1 year old = 30% (133)

  • 1-year old = 24% (108)

  • 2-years old = 19% (85)

  • 3-years old = 12% (54)

  • 4-years old = 6% (27)

  • 5-years old = 3% (14)

  • 6-years old = 2% (8)

  • 7-years old = 1% (2)

  • 8-years old = 1% (2)

  • 9-years old = 1% (2)