Keep kids, pets out of hot vehicles, experts say; in 2011, 33 children died in locked cars in U.S.

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

If a space is hot enough to bake dough into cookies, it’s too hot for children and pets to survive.

Often in summer, that space is a car.

Benicia is experiencing highs in the 80s, with a possible spike into the 90s this weekend. And if it’s 85 degrees outside, the interior of a closed car can hit 100 in seven to 10 minutes — and 120 degrees in half an hour.

A car’s windows act like a greenhouse, trapping sunlight and heat, according to information provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Internal temperatures of cars parked in direct sunlight can range from 131 to 172 degrees when outside temperatures are 80 degrees or higher, according to the NHTSA.

But even when the outside temperatures are in the 60s, it can reach 110 degrees inside a car.

Some motorists roll down windows a couple of inches, believing this will help. But the NHTSA said in 83-degree weather, a car will heat up to 109 degrees in 15 minutes, and most of that occurs in the first 10 minutes.

Such intense heat is life-threatening, the agency said, and particularly vulnerable to hyperthermia are children and pets.

The NHTSA has launched a new education campaign this year to prevent children’s injuries and deaths from being left in cars. Last year, 33 children younger than 14 died in the United States after being locked inside hot motor vehicles.

That’s down from the 49 deaths reported in 2010, the agency reported.

Others suffered permanent brain injury, lost their sight or hearing or suffered other damage because of being kept in hot cars, the agency’s report said.

“This campaign is a call-to-action for parents and families, but also for everyone in every community that cares about the safety of children,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

“It is hope that the simple tips from this campaign will save lives and help families avoid unnecessary heartache.”

Children 4 and younger have a greater surface area to body mass ratio, so they absorb more heat on hot days and lose heat more rapidly on cold days, the agency said, citing a study by the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Another report said an infant can die of hyperthermia within 15 minutes, even if the outside temperature is only 75.

Children also don’t sweat as easily, so they can’t dissipate body heat as efficiently as adults.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta provided the NHTSA with its own report that said such high temperatures damage the brain and other organs and lead to heat stroke and death.

Heatstroke happens when body temperature reaches 104 degrees and the body can’t control its own temperature, the center’s report said. It’s fatal if the body reaches 107 degrees.

Sometimes a child is left behind accidentally by a caregiver or parent who has forgotten the child is in the vehicle, particularly when the child is strapped into a back-seat safety seat, experts said.

Sometimes children have climbed into unlocked vehicles and are unable to get out. And other times, parents have left children deliberately in the motor vehicles, worried more about abductions than heat stroke, according to a pediatricians’ report cited by the NHTSA.

The agency’s 2012 campaign, “Where’s Baby? Look Before You Lock,” advises parents and caregivers never to leave a child unattended in a vehicle, even if the windows are partially open, the engine is running and the air conditioning is on. Other advice:

• Adults should develop the habit of looking in both the front and back of the vehicle before locking it and leaving.

• They should also ask their child care providers to call promptly if their child doesn’t show up on schedule, teach children not to play in vehicles, and store keys in places inaccessible by children.

• They shouldn’t assume someone else has retrieved the child from the car seat.

• As reminders that children are in the vehicle, adults may place important items, such as briefcases, cell phones or purses that would be retrieved at the end of the ride, in the back seat with the child.

• Parents may position the child’s seat behind the passenger seat, where the infant or toddler may be more visible to the driver. Some commercially sold items provide alarm reminders and monitors to alert adults that a child may be in the vehicle.

• Adults may also write reminder notes, apply car decals or place a stuffed animal in the driver’s view, the NHTSA campaign suggests.

Pets are not immune to the dangers of heat, either. The Humane Society of the United States learned in 2010 that eighth-grade science students in Brielle, N.J., produced an education campaign packed with information about how pets can die when left in hot cars.

Their posters, which were displayed in veterinary offices, showed how in 10 minutes a car with its windows cracked open can reach 102 degrees in the passenger compartment while the outside temperature is just 85, and how radiation, convection and conduction will push the temperature to 120 degrees in half an hour.

The students learned that cars heat up similarly even if the windows are partially open and the car is parked in the shade.

Dogs don’t sweat; they reduce their internal temperature by panting, the students learned, making them particularly vulnerable to overheating, the Humane Society reported.

According to summer safety tips provided by HSUS, pets can suffer heat exhaustion, heat stroke, brain and other organ damage as well as death when confined even briefly in hot cars.

Those seeing children or pets locked in cars should call 9-1-1, representatives of both the NHTSA and HSUS said.

On the lighter side, several websites actually promote hot cars as tools for baking cookies. A tray of sliced, raw sugar cookie dough placed on a car’s dashboard can bake as quickly as 2 1/2 hours, though they don’t turn brown the way they would in an oven, according to Cory Doctorow.

Chocolate chip cookies, baked last year by a reporter in Amarillo, Texas, who used sliced raw dough, took two hours to bake to a crispy texture on a 100-degree day with the car parked in the sun.

Last year, staff members of University Hospitals, in Cleveland, Ohio, assembled chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers — the ingredients for the treat “S’mores” — and cooked them for 30 minutes in closed cars rather than campfires. The tasty stunt was a visual and edible reminder of the dangers of hot cars, the staff said.

The National Weather Service is forecasting warm, sunny days for Benicia for the remainder of the week, and winds ranging from 10 to 15 mph will provide only some relief.

Today’s high is expected to reach 81 degrees, but temps will rise to 87 Friday and 90 Saturday before dropping to 84 Sunday and returning to the high 70s early next week. Lows the remainder of the week will range from 55 to 59 degrees.