Every year, a few dozen children die in hot cars across the United States. Sometimes, they climb into vehicles and become trapped. Other times, parents get busy and forget them in the car. In a few cases, parents might be under the influence or just don’t know the potential consequences.
But it’s not just hot temperatures outside that can kill an infant or child within minutes. Colder temperatures can be dangerous, too.
A study published this year in the journal “Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology” found that infants left in vehicles can die even in mild temperatures.
The year-round study modeled the “energy budget” of a hypothetical 1-year-old child in a station wagon in Texas by taking into account air temperature, humidity, cloud cover, wind speed and other variables. (Researchers did not use a real child.)
In all four seasons, despite different starting temperatures, the model infant experienced heat stroke and death before 2 p.m.
In August, when the starting temperature at 8 a.m. was 83 degrees, the model infant reached heat stroke by 9:45 a.m. and death by 10:05 a.m. In January, with a starting temperature of 35 degrees, the infant reached heat stroke by 1:15 p.m. and death by 1:55 p.m.
This video shows police rescuing a child from a vehicle in a Costco parking lot in New Jersey on Thursday, July 30. NJ Advance Media reported the mother, who shows up at the end of the video, was charged with child endangerment. The child was turned over to the father.
[youtube=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjKz3_ePa9w”]
