Hot Car Deaths
This session will help EMS & Fire Departments better understand that Hot Car Death Incidents happen, on average, once every nine days in the United States during summer months, and it is devastating. A child dies of heatstroke after being left in a parked vehicle. Although there have been cases in which parents are charged with purposely abandoning their kid in the backseat on a hot summer day, most of the time it is well-meaning, loving caregivers who make this honest mistake — and that’s why statistics of all the children who have died in hot cars show that precautions against this are so, so important. As much as some parents believe they would never ever forget their tiny passengers, that is a dangerous mindset that only increases the likelihood of this happening again.
Since 1990, over 1,050 kids have died in hot cars. That is about 39 per year on average. Although Texas, Florida & California have the hottest car deaths, Arkansas, Mississippi & Louisiana have the hottest car deaths per capita. Temperatures can rise about 20 degrees inside a car in just 10 minutes on a hot summer day.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that 61% of non-crash fatalities are caused by heatstroke inside vehicles.
During this session, we will review the hot car data statistics for your state and discuss both basic and advanced care for these hot car victims.
Objectives:
- Review statistics for Utah.
- Discuss basic and advanced care for hot car victims.