Children have just about an hour to live in a hot vehicle. No more.
If you’ve ever sat in your car with the windows up in warm weather for more than a few minutes, you know the glaring truth: that machine heats up fast. Real fast.
As summer approaches, it’s important to keep aware of the heat. Each year children and pets are forgotten about in cars, trapped inside, and die as a result of the heat.
And a recent study performed at Arizona State University has put a number on it. It was found that a car parked in the hot sun on summer’s day heats up to deadly temperatures in just about an hour.
In only one hour, the vehicle becomes so hot that a young child trapped inside will suffer heat injury and may likely die from hyperthermia- an elevated body temperature that occurs when the body absorbs more heat than it dissipates.
In one hour the car’s dashboard can also hit 160 degrees Farenheit, researchers found. This is hot enough to fry an egg, and incur 3rd degree burns on human skin.
Related: Mom Refuses to Break Window in Hot Car to Save Toddler From Heat
“..Even parking a vehicle in the shade can be lethal to a small child,” said Nancy Selover, an Arizona State climatologist and research professor in ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.
It’s something that’s been proven through horrible accidents. In just the last 5 months- January, 2018 through May, 2018, 6 children have died after being left in hot cars in the United States. More than 50% of the cases involve parents who accidentally forgot their child in the car.
Sound impossible? Unfortunately, it’s something memory experts say can happen to anyone.
“Often these stories involve a distracted parent,” said Gene Brewer, an ASU associate professor of psychology. “Memory failures are remarkably powerful, and they happen to everyone. There is no difference between gender, class, personality, race or other traits. Functionally, there isn’t much of a difference between forgetting your keys and forgetting your child in the car.”
Stay safe. For tips on how to never forget your child in the car, check out Parenting.com.
Photo credits: logoboom/Shutterstock.com
