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Don’t Let Your Child Become a Hot Car Victim
Every year, an average of 37 children die from being locked inside a hot car in the U.S. Since 1994, 804 children have died from heat-related illnesses in cars, according to Kids and Cars, an advocacy center that conducts research on car-related dangers surrounding children. It’s heartbreaking—an unspeakable tragedy that could be avoided. When we hear stories of infants and toddlers dying in their car seats, while parents leave them unattended for hours, we think, “How could anyone possibly forget their child?”
Fatal Frontovers are Now Raising Concerns
With vehicles getting larger, it is becoming more difficult to see children in front of cars. Hundreds of children have lost their lives when drivers, often pulling forward out of a driveway, accidentally crush them. Kids and Cars call these kids of accidents frontovers. Eighty percent of frontovers involve larger vehicles and most accidents involve parents behind the wheel.
DCFS releases PSA announcement reminding to keep kids and pets safe in and around cars
In the summer, a car can heat up to 90 degrees in less than 10 minutes so it is never a good idea to leave a child alone in a car for any amount of time; and it is against the law in Illinois. “If you see a child in a hot car alone, dial 9-1-1 immediately,” says DCFS Acting Director BJ Walker. “Your sense of community and your intervention can help prevent a tragedy and save a life when minutes and even seconds matter.”
Family loses son in hot car death, joins lawmakers in stopping it
“I still wake up every morning and cry. I still gaze at my picture that I carry with me," Miles Harrison said. It was a hot July day. Miles Harrison drove to work, forgetting to drop his 21-month-old son Chase off at daycare. Chase died after being left in a sweltering car for 9 hours. Miles was acquitted of manslaughter. But has never forgiven himself. "Just think it was a bad dream," he added. Now, nine years later, Miles and his wife Carol are on a mission to make sure this doesn’t happen to anymore families.
37 children die of heat stroke after being left in hot cars each year
Peabody recalls the day it happened, “October 18th 2008 was a very un-typical day for us, normally on Saturdays my daughter Maya would have gone to work with me. We had family in town so we all went out to breakfast and took three separate vehicles.” After breakfast, Dawn took the family suburban to work. Maya went with her father, Wes, and the other kids piled in with Grandma and Grandpa. Dawn Peabody says, “My husband on the way home stopped to get gas and then when he got home he did what he normally would have done he jumped out of his vehicle ran inside to play with the kids. About an hour later someone asked where is Maya. And then it hit him.
