children hot vehicles


Why are Kids Dying in Hot Cars?

by Alexandria Durrell

Yesterday was the funeral for a little toddler who died as a result of heat exposure when he was left alone in a car. It was also the day police confirmed that a small girl died as a result of the same mistake. Is “mistake” even the right word? It almost seems too trivial to call such an unthinkable, horrific accident a “mistake”.

The Canada Safety Council says that while Canadian statistics on these deaths are unknown, there are approximately 38 in the United States each year. We’ve now had two this week in Canada, and the official start of summer was just last week.

According to the CSC:

In the confined space of a car, temperatures can climb so rapidly that they overwhelm a child’s ability to regulate his or her internal temperature. In a closed environment, the body, especially a small body, can go into shock quickly, and circulation to vital organs can fail.


A study funded by General Motors of Canada found that within 20 minutes the air temperature in a previously air-conditioned small car exposed to the sun on a 35ºC day (95º F) exceeded 50ºC (122º F). Within 40 minutes the temperature soared to 65.5 ºC (150º F).

What is happening? Why are kids dying in these kinds of preventable “accidents”? I don’t know.

What I do know is that arguments are intense about the issue – it’s contentious because being forgetful is something we, as parents, know is a possibility, even a way of life. We have a thousand things to remember every day, sometimes things slip by us. But forgetting a child? In a blazing hot car? Is this something that simply slips the mind of a caregiver?

Is stress a plausible excuse for such an event? Psychologists say that it isn’t that uncommon a possibility, and in this article, a doctor explains exactly how it’s possible for a brain to simply forget about a child in the backseat, to tragic consequences. Studies show how this could happen to anyone. Anyone. Like me?

I don’t know what the answer is to this unspeakable sad event, but I know that I read a tip about how to help prevent these kinds of tragedies: place your purse, bag, cellphone, wallet – anything you need to take with you when you leave the car – in the backseat so you’re forced to go back there before you leave the car.

I would never want to impose judgment on a situation about which I know no details, but this is something we must all consciously make efforts to stop. Stop letting our children die in hot cars.





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