A Word of Summer Caution
Summer is upon us again and already tragic reports are coming in of children dying after being left unattended in over-heated vehicles. This past Tuesday, May 1, a one-year-old boy died in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The day was only in the 80s, but the temperature inside the car soared to 142 degrees. Apparently the father, now charged with criminally negligent homicide and aggravated child abuse and neglect, forgot the boy was in his car seat after dropping the family’s other three children at school.
Researchers in a study conducted in California determined that the temperature inside a vehicle, irrespective of the outside temperature, will rise on average 40 degrees in one hour. Some 80 percent of this heating occurs in the first half hour. Children are especially susceptible to heat stroke because their bodies do not regulate core temperature as well as those of adults. This effect, coupled with dehydration, equals a rapidly fatal combination.
“Cracking” the window is not a solution to the rapid temperature increases. Between 1998 and 2006, some 324 children died in incidents like that in Chattanooga earlier this week. In the vast majority of cases, the parents in question were not “evil” or “bad.” They “cracked” the window and ran into the store for “just a minute” only to return to a tragedy. The rule is simple — never leave your child unattended in a vehicle. It is not safe, under any circumstances, even on days when you think the temperature is mild.