Statistics On All The Children Who Have Died In Hot Cars Shows Precautions Are Vital
It happens, on average a child tragically dies due to heatstroke suffered in a hot vehicle once every nine days. This statistic is staggering and devastating. During the summer month’s it’s a habit for many people to leave their children in the car for just a few minutes so they can run errands, a practice that can have deadly consequences. However the bigger risk is parents being distracted and forgetting their child is in the car. As much as some parents believe that they’d never, ever forget about their tiny passengers, that’s actually a dangerous mindset that only increases the likelihood of this continuing to happen.
Last week, a child died in Helotes, TX police say that the baby was in the car when his father drove to work at the Wal-Mart. The baby was found dead nine hours later inside the car. The father told police that he forgot to drop the baby off at daycare. This was the 27th such U.S. death this year alone and is a classic, albeit disturbing, example of just how pervasive of a problem this is.
According to KidsAndCars.org, a national safety organization, a child’s body overheats three to five times faster than an adult body. Children have died in cars when the outside temperature was as low as 60°, but the sun shining through the windows turned the car into an oven.
Grieving parents of children who had succumbed to heat stroke in hot cars, are actively advocating for the Department of Transportation and for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to raise high awareness and are calling for immediate action on this pervasive problem.
The families insist on adding driver-reminding technology to cars to help prevent parents and caregivers from unintentionally leaving children alone in vehicles. “The worst thing any parent or caregiver can do is think that this could never happen to them or that they are not capable of unknowingly leaving their child behind,” says Janette Fennell, founder and president of KidsAndCars.org. “This can and does happen to the most loving, responsible and attentive parents; no one is immune.”
Since 1990, more than 750 children have died in these preventable tragedies. “We encourage individuals in all communities to take action if you see a child alone in a vehicle. Try to find the driver of the vehicle, call 911 and if the child seems to be in imminent danger, break the window furthest away from the child to rescue them,” stressed Amber Andreasen, director of KidsAndCars.org.
For additional information, statistics and charts specific to child vehicular heat stroke visit https://www.kidsandcars.org/heatstroke-day.html. This tragedy can be prevented.
If you or someone you care about has been injured, contact Rosenberg & Gluck, personal injury attorneys, for a free, confidential legal consultation to learn more about your options.
