Children Left in Hot Cars

Video from Ocoee, Florida (October 30, 2007).



Injury Prevention (2005,11:33-37) has research results of Gardi and Gallagher, who studied 171 fatalities involving children dying in parked cars from 1995 to 2005. They found that 73 percent (125) of the children were left by adults. More than 25 percent of the adults were aware they were leaving children in the vehicles; while 50 percent of the adults were unaware or simply forgot. "Forty three percent (54) of deaths to children who were left were associated with childcare: 32 children were left by family members who intended to take them to childcare but forgot and went to work instead; 22 children were left by child care providers or drivers."
The researchers concluded that the reported deaths could have been preventd by "keeping cars locked, educating parents, implementing informed child care transportation policies, passing relevant laws, and working with auto and child safety seat manufacturers to build in warnings and other design features."