It Only Takes a Few Minutes for A Child to Be Injured or Killed in a Hot Car - Download the Car Seat Hot Car Safety App Today!
“An otherwise loving and attentive parent one day gets busy, or distracted, or upset, or confused by a change in his or her daily routine, and just . . . forgets a child is in the car . . . it can happen to anyone!” Gene Weingarten, Washington Post
Quick Facts about Hot Car Injuries
Since 1998, 705 children have died in hot cars, and over half of all hot car injuries occur because a parent or caregiver simply forgot the child was in the car.
- The temperature can increase in a car almost one degree per minute.
- The temperature in a parked car can easily reach 120 degrees or more in less than 30 minutes.
- The greatest rise in temperature occurs in the first twenty minutes after parking.
- Research indicates that cracking windows in the vehicle has little effect on temperature rise.
- A child's body temperature rises 3-5 times faster than an adult's.
- When a child's body temperature reaches 104 degrees, major organs begin to shut down, and at 107 degrees death is imminent
- Hot car deaths have been recorded 11 months out of the year in almost every state.
- Heatstroke is the #2 cause of child injuries involving automobiles, second only to backover injuries.