Preventing Child Deaths in Hot Cars
It seems these days that everyone is in a hurry to get to their destination. Too often we hear of children dying from heat stroke from being left in a hot car. On a typical 86-degree day, it only takes about 10 minutes for the temperature in a car to reach 105 degrees. Most of the children are mistakenly forgotten. Some children crawl in the car without a parent knowing and get stuck. And yes, a small percentage of children die because their parents believe it’s safe for them to be in the car. Here are a few tips that all of us can follow to prevent these terrible tragedies from occurring.
- Open the backdoor and look in the backseat to make sure that everyone is out of the car (even if you think you don’t have anyone back there).
- Keep something important in the backseat. Put your purse, cellphone, computer, lunch, or anything else essential to your daily routine next to your child.
- Even if the car is in the garage, make sure the car is locked. This will prevent your little one from climbing in the car without your knowledge.
- Keep your keys away from the kids.
- Teach your children to honk the horn if they get stuck.
- If you see something, do something. Do not hesitate to call 911.