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Doctors Warn About Leaving Children In Hot Vehicles

Summer is here and with Summer comes hot temperatures especially in vehicles.  Child safety experts want to remind parents that leaving a child in a hot car even if just for a few moments can turn deadly. Ginger Streitmatter is a Child Passenger Safety Technician. She warns that outdoor temperatures can make shut off vehicles turn into ovens very quickly.

 

 

Temperatures can be as low as 57 degrees according to Streitmatter and still create dangerous environments for children inside a car.  Heatstroke which happens when the body isn’t able to cool itself quickly enough is the leading cause of non-crash, vehicle-related deaths in children under 15, and more studies have been done like this from the injury prevention advocacy group, Safe Kids Worldwide. 

 

When left in a hot car, a child’s major organs begin to shut down when their internal temperature reaches 104 degrees. Streitmatter says a child’s body heats up faster than an adult’s and a child can die when their temperature reaches 107 degrees.  She continues by stressing that cracking a window isn’t a quick fix.

 

 

She even put her car to the test by holding a surface thermometer, she was able to check the car seat that had been sitting in a vehicle during a sunny morning.

 

 

She encourages that if you see a child who has been left inside a hot car, don’t hesitate to call 9-1-1. For more information, click here. 

 

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