Never Leave Your Child Alone in a Car

Winchester, Mass. – Every year, an average of 37 children die from hyperthermia, or heat illness, because they are left unattended in vehicles that become too hot for them to survive. Winchester Hospital has joined with Safe Kids USA to encourage parents and caregivers to take precautions so this tragedy doesn’t happen to them.
 
In just 10 minutes, a car’s temperature can increase by 19 degrees – and it continues to rise as time goes on. Because a child’s core body temperature heats up three to five times faster than that of an adult, it only takes minutes for a child to become at risk of serious, permanent injury or death in a hot car. This is why it is not safe to leave your child alone – not even for one minute, and not even with the windows slightly open. There is no evidence that cracking the windows helps keep a car cool.
 
More than 50 percent of the children who have died from heat stroke were forgotten by a caring adult who became distracted when they left the vehicle. Thirty percent of affected kids gained entry into an unlocked vehicle, became trapped and were overcome by heat.
 
Some ways to protect children this summer include:
  • Teach children not to play in any vehicle.
  • Keep car doors and trunks locked so children cannot play in them, especially when at home. Keep keys and remote entry key fobs out of children’s reach. Kids may be able to use a remote entry key fob to unlock a car from inside a house, leaving an unlocked car for others to enter.
  • Watch children closely around vehicles, particularly when loading and unloading. Check to ensure that all children leave the vehicle when you reach your destination.
  • Never leave a car with the motor running and the doors unlocked. Curious children could enter and engage the vehicle.
  • Set your cell phone or Blackberry reminder to be sure you drop your child off at day care.
  • Set your computer Outlook e-mail program to ask you, “Did you drop off your child at day care today?”
  • Place something that you will need at your next stop (i.e., a purse, lunch, cell phone, PDA, gym bag or briefcase) on the floor of the back seat, in front of where the child is sitting. This simple act could help prevent you from accidentally forgetting your child if he or she is sleeping.
  • Make it a habit to check the back seat every time you exit your vehicle.
  • Be especially careful if you change your routine for dropping off your child at day care. Have a plan that if your child is late for day care that you will be called within a few minutes.
  • Check cars and trunks first if a child goes missing.
Remember never to leave your child alone in a vehicle, even for one minute! And if you see that someone else has done so, call 911.
 
For more information on preventing hyperthermia deaths, visit www.safekids.org/nlyca. To see a demonstration of how quickly a car heats up in moderate temperatures, visit www.ggweather.com/heat.
 
About Winchester Hospital
Winchester Hospital is the first community hospital in Massachusetts to earn Magnet recognition, the American Nurses Association’s highest honor for nursing excellence. As the northwest suburban Boston area’s leading provider of comprehensive health care services, the 229-bed facility provides care in general, bariatric and vascular surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, oncology, gastroenterology, rehabilitation, radiation oncology, pain management, obstetrics/gynecology and a Level IIB Special Care Nursery. Winchester Hospital has clinical affiliations with several nationally recognized hospitals in the region, including Children’s Hospital Boston, Tufts Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. To learn more, visit www.winchesterhospital.org.

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