National Heatstroke Prevention Day
Today, May 1, 2025, is National Heatstroke Prevention Day
So far in 2025, we have had only 1 death due to heatstroke in a vehicle: a 4 month old boy was left in a vehicle where the outside temperature was reported at 67.8°. In the first 10 minutes a vehicle has been sitting in the sun, the temperature inside rises about 19°. After 20 minutes, it has risen about 29°.
Before long, the inside temperature can be well above 140° depending on the outside air temperature. Cracking a window doesn’t matter: the sun’s rays heat the interior fixtures of the vehicle: the dash, steering wheel, seats, etc., which cause the air molecules to heat up. It’s science we all learned in grade school but have probably long forgotten.
Hyperthermia, or high body temperature, occurs when the body’s temperature goes over 104°. A temperature over 107° can be deadly and it happens very quickly with children, whose bodies heat up faster than adults’.
Another factor in vehicular heatstroke deaths is children getting access to vehicles without their caregivers’ knowledge. A child may find a key fob endlessly fascinating or remember a favorite toy was left in the car and go back for it while you think they are napping. If the door closes behind them and they are incapable of opening it, a desperate situation can happen quickly.
You are not a bad parent if you forget a child in the car. What causes it is a failure of prospective memory and it happens to people from all walks of life; no one is immune. It’s the same thing as when you forget your keys in the drawer and get to the car only to find out you don’t have them (every day 🙋♀️) or put your cup of coffee on top of the car as you put your child in their carseat and drive off, forgetting it’s there.
Technology is finally becoming available to help, but you have to be an active participant in its use. Carseat manufacturers like Evenflo and CYBEX offer SensorSafe which monitors 3 situations related to a child left in a vehicle: air temperature, a child seated for 2 hours, and a broken Bluetooth connection. Babyark has an app that works in similar ways to the Evenflo app, so it too monitors the temperature and a broken Bluetooth connection. Doona offers the SensAlert insert which connects to an app that will send an alert if the Bluetooth connection is broken. The Waze app also has a reminder feature.
Vehicle manufacturer warnings about children in the back seat range from simple text warnings on the dash to actual camera or radar monitoring of the back seat. Sometimes these options are opt-in, meaning you have to go into the settings and turn them on, so be sure to check your owner’s manual to see if your car is equipped with such a feature.
Here are 10 easy things you can do to keep your child safe:
If your child is missing, check your pool first, then your vehicle (including the trunk(s)!)—check neighbor’s pools and vehicles second
Arrange to have your childcare provider contact you when your child doesn’t show up that day. Make sure they have multiple contact numbers to call/text and that they keep calling until they reach a live person.
Keep all vehicles LOCKED at all times, even when they are in the garage and keep your keys/key fobs out of reach
Keep your wallet AND cell phone in the back seat when you are driving
Another option, put one shoe in the back seat when you are driving—you’re not going to walk away from your vehicle without your other shoe!
Make it a habit to always look in the back seat when getting out of the car
Teach your children that it’s NEVER okay to play in the car or to go into the car to get something without a grown-up
Teach your children NEVER to hide in the car or inside the trunk
However, also teach your children to blow the horn repeatedly to attract attention if they are ever trapped inside a vehicle
Please don’t forget pets—if it’s too hot for baby in the car, it’s too hot for your pet
If you’d like to read more, here are some links:
No Heat Stroke: Jan Null has done critical, invaluable research for decades on this topic and our knowledge of the mechanics of how vehicles heat up and the up-to-date database is due to him.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Heatstroke Page