Tragedy of Kids in Hot Cars

Several years back, Jan Null (a forensic meteorologist) was asked to testify in a case where a child died after being left in a hot car. His job involves looking back at and piecing together all sorts of weather-related incidents that caused harm. To his surprise, there was virtually no research on the topic of children dying in hot cars. So he took it upon himself to find out everything that he could. Below is the opening paragraph of an article that he recently wrote. It’s very sobering.

Every year, dozens of children die from heatstroke inside a vehicle in the United States. At an average of 37 deaths per year, this is more than double the average number of the 16 hurricane deaths in the United States in the past decade, making it one of the deadliest weather-related causes of death. Since 1998, at least 742 children have died from pediatric vehicular heatstroke (PVH) in the United States as the result of either being accidentally forgotten in a vehicle, having gotten into a vehicle on their own, or having been knowingly left inside a vehicle by a parent or other caregiver. And sadly, nearly three-quarters (73%) of the deaths are in children ages two or younger.