As summer approaches and the weather gets hotter and hotter and even hotter, it’s time to think about the dangers of children and pets in vehicles that are baking in the heat.
Already, before summer has officially begun, five children have died in the American South: a boy, 1, in Pinehurst, Fla.; a boy, 2, in Brandon, Fla.; a girl, 3, in Ville Platte, La.; a boy, 1, in Vestavia, Ala.; a boy, 23 months, in Burleson, Texas.
A child suffocating to death in a hot, airless car is a hideous death as all too many emergency personnel have discovered. In some cases, the tykes were found to have ripped at their hair in agony as they died.
Since 1990, nearly 800 children have died in hot, closed vehicles in the United States. One is too many.
Children and pets can die from heatstroke on days when the outside temperature is only 60 degrees. The air inside a locked, closed car heats up to higher temperatures when the sun is beating down on it.
The sad fact is too many parents think it cannot happen to their precious child, but even a loving, educated, responsible parent can sometimes unknowingly leave a child or a pet inside a hot car. It most often happens when a parent is in a hurry and mistakenly thinks in a split second the spouse took the child to daycare or to school.
All adults, especially parents and babysitters, should plan now to initiate the vitally important prevention measures that can avoid the unthinkable tragedy of a child (or pet) “baking to death” in a vehicle.
Here are tips recommended by a great website called www.kidsandcars.org:
- Put something in the back seat so you have to open the back door when leaving the vehicle. That way you will be sure to see a child or pet in the back seat. In the back you could place a cellphone, employee badge, handbag, left shoe or other important object.
- Every time you park your vehicle, open the back door to make sure no one has been left inside. The rule is to “Look Before You Lock.”
- Ask a child-care provider or babysitter to call you within 10 minutes if your child has not arrived on time.
- Keep a stuffed animal in your child’s car seat and move it to the front seat to remind yourself when the baby is in the back seat.
- Focus on driving and avoid cellphone calls and any other distractions while driving.
- Never, ever leave a child or a pet in a hot, closed car, even for a short period of time because the inside vehicle temps can soar to deadly levels even in a 10- or 15-minute period.
- Learn to check your back seat even if you are in a hurry or even if you think you are sure the child is not with.
If you see a child or pet in obvious heatstroke stress inside a car, with death possibly imminent, you have a legal right to bust open a window to free the victim. There is a nifty device called a “resqme” that fits on a keychain and can break open a car window instantly with a spring-loaded device.
For more information on how to get one, go to www.kidsandcars.org/resqme-tool.
That site, as noted above, has excellent advice on how to ensure children and pets never become heatstroke victims left in vehicles.
