Temperatures are warming up this week, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it’s a good time to remind you about how you can prevent child hot car deaths.
Hot car deaths are one of the leading causes of non-crash-related fatalities among children.
NHTSA said heatstroke begins when the core body temperature reaches around 104 degrees and death happens when that core temperature is 107 degrees or higher.
According to NHTSA, over a thousand children have died of heatstroke caused by being left or trapped in a hot car in the past 25 years. Last year, 39 children in the U.S. died of heatstroke in vehicles.
These deaths can happen in temperatures as low as 60 degrees, because children’s body temperatures rise three to five times faster than adults.
The majority of these deaths happen because someone forgets a child in a car, with this happening more often toward the end of the work week.
1 in 4 hot car deaths in the nation happen when kids get trapped in cars. More than half of the deaths are children under 2 years old.
NHTSA has the following tips to help keep children safe in and around cars during the warmer months:
Always check the back seat of your car before locking the doorsAlways keep your car locked and keep car keys out of a child’s reachNever let children play unsupervised in or around a vehicleIf a child is missing, quickly check all vehicles, including trunksNever leave a child alone in a parked car
If you see a child alone in a vehicle, NHTSA says to make sure the child is okay. If not, call 911 immediately.
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