As we head into summer, its important to remember the dangers of leaving toddlers, the elderly and pets inside a hot car.
It takes very little time for the interior of a car to heat up; and what many adults don’t seem to know is that a child’s body also heats up much faster than that of an adult. In fact, a child’s internal organs begin to shut down once their core temperature reaches or surpasses 40°C.
On a day when the outside temperature reaches 30°C, it would take approximately 10 minutes for the interior of a car to heat up to 40.5°C.
It may sound incomprehensible that one might forget their child in a car in a hot parking lot but with the ever increasing stresses of “life during COVID_19”, coupled with our ever changing work schedules; leaving a child in a hot car is indeed plausible.
Things to help prevent the unthinkable:
- Always check the back seat and make sure all children are out of the car before locking it and walking away.
- If someone else is driving your child, always check to make sure he has arrived safely.
- Keep your car locked when it is parked to prevent a curious child from entering when no one is around. Many hot car deaths have occurred when a child mistakenly locks himself inside.
- Make sure children do not have easy access to your car keys.
- Teach children that cars are not safe places to play.
- Keep rear fold-down seats closed to prevent a child from crawling into the trunk from inside the car.
- Remind children that cars, especially car trunks, should not be used for games like hide-and-seek.
