Hot Car Deaths
This session will help EMS & Fire Departments better understand that Hot Car Death Incidents happens, 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 shows that precautions against this are so, so important. As much as some parents believe that they would never, ever forget about their tiny passengers, that is actually a dangerous mindset that only increases the likelihood of this continuing to happen.
Since 1990 over 1,050 kids have died in hot cars. That is an average of about 39 per year.Although Texas, Florida & California have the most hot car deaths, Arkansas, Mississippi & Louisiana have the most hot car deaths per capita. Temperatures can rise about 20 degrees inside of 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 we will discuss both basic and advance care for these hot car victims.