Hot car deaths are rising as a summer heat wave sweeps across nation and North Carolina
By Michelle Kennedy
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North Carolina, USA (WXII) — This year’s first hot car tragedy happened on March 18 in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, when a father forgot his 4-month-old son in the back of the car. Outside air temperatures were in the upper 60s that day, but inside the vehicle, temperatures reached into the 90s.
Tracking Hot Car Deaths in the United States
Meteorologist Jan Null, with the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University, started tracking and researching deaths in hot vehicles and pediatric vehicular heat stroke deaths in 2001. Null founded noheatstroke.org to provide data and research in an effort to prevent more hot car deaths.
According to Null and Kids and Car Safety, the latest reported number of hot car deaths in the country is 16. The youngest victim was 3 months old and the oldest child was 7 years old. The Kids and Car Safety organization has a complete list of hot car deaths and links to the news stories surrounding the event.
Babies, children, and people who are unable to care for themselves can die from being left in a hot car as heat stroke sets in from hyperthermia. Young children and babies become overwhelmed by the heat three to five times faster than adults.
With temperatures in the 90s this week, the inside temperature of vehicles can soar quickly in the sunshine. Null’s research data has shown indoor vehicle temperatures can reach maximums of more than 150 degrees. The summer heat wave has been impacting millions of residents from the Midwest to the East Coast; safety experts are urging parents and caregivers to prevent hot car deaths.
North Carolina Hot Car Incidents North Carolina has had two hot car incidents in the last two months. A foster mother from Hamlet, North Carolina, has been charged after allegedly forgetting a 7-month-old baby girl outside in a minivan. And a recent incident happened in Greensboro, North Carolina, when a mother allegedly left her child in a vehicle while she worked because she could not find a babysitter. The child is in critical condition as of the latest information.
DA’s office reveals new details after Greensboro mother leaves child in hot car.
Pets are also susceptible to dying quickly when left inside a hot vehicle. The latest pet death in North Carolina happened July 24 in Moore County, North Carolina.
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