- Keep parked car doors locked so children cannot get inside, and teach children that cars are not play areas.
[Twenty-seven] percent of the 798 children who have died from pediatric vehicular heatstroke since 1998 climbed into an unlocked car on their own.
- Place a purse, briefcase or even a left shoe in the backseat of a vehicle so you have to look there before you lock the vehicle.
The video also shares important information about why children are particularly vulnerable to high temperatures inside of vehicles.
- A child’s body overheats 3‐5 times faster than an adult body.
- The inside of a vehicle heats up VERY quickly! Even with the windows cracked, the temperature inside a car can reach 125 degrees in minutes.
- [Eighty percent] of the increase in temperature happens in the first 10 minutes
- Cracking the windows does not help slow the heating process OR decrease the maximum temperature.
- Children have died from heatstroke in cars in temps as low as 60 degrees.
An average of 38 children younger than 15 die each year in the United States from heatstroke after being left in a vehicle or getting inside an unlocked vehicle, according to the NSC.
Let’s keep all kids safe this summer by taking necessary precautions to ensure no child gets left behind. Educate yourself and others about pediatric vehicular heatstroke—it could mean the difference between life and death.
