Important reminder about children in hot cars following tragedy in Virginia

Chesterfield County, Virginia, is the most recent community where a child has died from Pediatric Vehicular Heatstroke after being left in a hot car. There have been eight hot car deaths this year, three in the last week, so we wanted to remind you of the dangers of hot cars and go over the ways to keep your kids safe this summer.

Recent hot car deaths

On Tuesday, an 18-month-old was left in the car for at least three hours in Virginia, leading to the child’s death, according to the Chesterfield County Police. Police say that the father of the child came to the realization that he had left the toddler in the car when he was notified that the child did not arrive at daycare. He realized the child had been in the car for the three hours he had been at work.

Police arrived at the home of the child, after the father rushed them home from his work, to find the car with its backseat door open and an empty car seat. Police found the lifeless 18-month-old inside the home. Further investigations of the property revealed that the 37-year-old father had taken his own life with a firearm, and was found dead in the woods behind the home.

Two days prior, on June 26, a three-year-old was found dead in a car in Columbus, Georgia. In Houston, on June 20, a five-year-old was pronounced deceased at the scene after being in a hot car for two or three hours.

Related: Dangerous heat: What Michigan law says about leaving children in hot cars

Keeping your kids safe

Research has shown that anyone could forget kids in hot cars, according to Kids and Car Safety. Since 1998, more than 900 children have died in hot cars and more than half of them were left behind unknowingly, according to NoHeatStroke.org.

Both Kids and Car Safety and NoHeatStroke.org are organizations that research and bring awareness to this issue.

Research shows that leaving children in hot cars is not necessarily a negligence problem, but a memory problem. NoHeatStroke.org reports that 182 of the 907 children that died in a hot car were knowingly left by their caregivers.

So how do you ensure that this tragedy never happens to you? Kids and Car Safety says that the most dangerous mistake a parent or caregiver can make is to think that leaving a child alone in a vehicle could never happen to their family.

This is a tragedy that can be prevented. The following is information to keep in mind this summer to make sure that your child is not the next victim of a hot car death, according to Kids and Car Safety:

Hot car science

• Even with the windows cracked, the temperature inside a car can reach 125 degrees in minutes.
• 80% of the increase in inside temperatures happens in the first ten minutes.
• Cracking the windows does not help slow the heating process or decrease maximum temperatures.
• Children have died from heatstroke in cars when outside temperatures were as low as 60 degrees.

Why this might happen

• A child’s body overheats three to five times faster than an adult body.
• A change in daily routine (such as those changes experienced after summer vacation starts), lack of sleep, stress, fatigue, and distractions are all things parents experience and are just some of the reasons children have been unknowingly left in vehicles.
• Rear-facing car seats look the same to the driver whether there is a baby in them or not.
• Children, especially babies, often fall asleep in their rear-facing child safety seats, becoming very quiet.

Prevention and safety tips

• Make sure your child is never left alone in a car by:
  • Placing the child’s diaper bag or item in the front passenger seat as a visual cue that the child is with you
  • Making it a habit of opening the back door every single time you park to ensure no one is left behind. Try placing an item that you cannot start the day without in the backseat, like a laptop or cell phone, to enforce the habit.
  • Asking your childcare provider to call right away if your child hasn’t arrived as scheduled.
  • Using drive-thru services when available.
• Make sure your children are safe around parked cars by:
  • Keeping vehicles locked at all times, especially in the garage or driveway. Ask neighbors to do the same.
  • Using childproof knob covers and door alarms to prevent children from exiting your home unnoticed.
  • Teaching children to honk the horn or turn on the hazard lights if they become stuck in the car.

If you see a child alone in a vehicle, get involved. Call 911 immediately. If the child seems hot or sick, get them out of the vehicle as quickly as possible by any means necessary.

Share these safety tips with relatives, friends, teachers, neighbors, or anyone else, it could save a life.

To read more about children’s safety in hot cars visit: KidsandCars.org and NoHeatstroke.org