The United States is on track to report its lowest amount of pediatric hot car deaths in a year since record-keeping on the subject started more than three decades ago, and child safety groups are pointing to the continued COVID-19 pandemic as a big factor.
With summer right around the corner, there have been two pediatric vehicular heatstroke fatalities throughout the nation in 2020, well below normal for the first five-plus months of a calendar year. The average amount of hot car deaths for children through June 10 is around nine, according to Jan Null, the founder of NoHeatStroke.org, a website that tracks hot car deaths across the nation and analyzes vehicle heating dynamics.
Null, who collaborates alongside other national advocacy groups such as the National Safety Council (NSC) and KidsandCars.org, stated the impact of the pandemic, and its role in keeping people at home and off the roads, has been a topic of talks among child safety experts.
“The impact of people staying at home and not being in as many situations where they might forget a child in a car has certainly had an impact,” stated Null, who also works as an adjunct professor of meteorology at San Jose State University.
Even with schools closed, and many adults working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, people should not let their guard down regarding the dangers posed by hot cars, experts informed. A joint email newsletter sent out the previous month from No Heat Stroke, Kids and Cars, the NSC, and Safe Kids Worldwide, concentrated on the dangers of young children gaining access to vehicles.
An examination of the more than 850 vehicular heatstroke deaths in children from 1998 to 2019 by No Heat Stroke discovered that about 25 percent of the cases were the result of children gaining access to the vehicle on their own. Most often, children are left in a car unknowingly; this accounts for 54 percent of cases reported, according to Null’s data.
That was the unfortunate circumstance with relation to the second fatality of 2020 on May 28 in Clewiston, Florida, when a 10-month-old girl died after being left in a vehicle for an unknown duration of time.
Just two years ago, a record number of children died after becoming stuck or unintentionally left in a hot car. Fifty-four children died in 2018 while the number dropped to 53 in 2019, according to Kids and Cars. On average, about 39 deaths are reported every year in the U.S., or one every nine days, the organization reports. By the end of May 2019, there had already been 10 deaths.
“We absolutely believe that COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the lower number of hot car deaths this year. Our big concern is that as families begin to go back to work, that the changes in routine could pose an increased risk for hot car deaths,” said Amber Rollins, the director of Kids and Cars. “Additionally, with children being home more often, we are concerned that there could be an increased risk for children becoming trapped inside hot cars and other home accidental injuries.”
