Expert warns of hot car deaths as weather warms up
JACKSON, Tenn. — Today is National Heatstroke Prevention Day.
This is a day aimed to raise awareness and help prevent hot car deaths among children and pets.
Kids and Car Safety is a leading advocacy group that wants to bring awareness about the dangers of leaving a child or a pet alone in a vehicle.
“One of our biggest challenges in working to prevent these tragedies is helping people to understand in fact, this could happen to them even if they are a wonderful, loving parent,” said Amber Rollins, Director for KCS.
Since 1990, KCS has documented more than 1,000 children that have died in hot cars.
“That’s not just a number, that’s people’s children. Think about that many children sitting in front of you right now. This is a huge problem,” said Rollins.
Advocates say the majority of hot car victims are children under 5 years old.
For cases where the child is unknowingly left, the majority of these children are under 3 years old.
“That’s because a lot of these children are in rear-facing car seats. So, for the driver a child in a rear facing car seat looks the same as whether there’s a baby in there or not. You can’t see the child from the driver’s seat and this make it that much easier for a parent to lose awareness that their child is back there in the back seat,” said Rollins.
Experts remind us to never leave a child or pet alone in a vehicle.
When it comes to your fur-baby, leaving the air conditioning running with your pet inside the car isn’t a good idea either.
Experts say it can take just 15 minutes for dogs and cats to die of heatstroke inside a hot vehicle.
If you are in doubt, leave your pets at home.
Advocates say these are predictable, yet preventable, tragedies that could happen to anyone.
As of 2022, Tennessee is one of 31 states that have laws that prohibit leaving pets in parked cars under dangerous conditions.
Tennessee also provides immunity for citizens who rescue pets in vehicles.
That means you can’t sue someone for breaking into your car to stop your pet from suffering heat stroke.
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