Every year, summer sets in, hot days fill our weeks. We know it’s summertime when we want to walk through the sprinklers to cool down. We also know it’s summer when the news starts reporting on a child found dead in a car.
It’s shocking for me that parents will still leave a child in their car, with temperatures outside in the 80’s, 90’s and above. I’ve always believed that is one of the worse kind of child abuse. The sad thing is, it continues to happen each year.
Researcher Jan Null has been tracking data of fatalities due to hyperthermia, since the late 1990’s. He has already documented 18 fatalities this year, with 8 of them having been reported since June 13. Not all of these are because of a parent leaving the child in the car. Some were from children going back into an unlocked car, and getting locked in.
“In Portageville, Mo., 2-year-old twins Allannah and Alliya Larry were found dead in their grandmother's car on June 16 as temperatures pushed into the mid-90s. New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens said the children apparently got into the unlocked car on their own and were locked inside the vehicle for two hours.”(WRAL)
The following are statistics I pulled from http://ggweather.com/heat/index.htm, a report posted online by Jan Null, CCM, Adjunct Professor of Meteorology,San Francisco State University. Out of the 463 children that Null reported have died since 1998, he records that 30%, or 133, of these children were under the age of 1.
“STATISTICS
Total number of U.S. hyperthermia deaths of children left in cars, 2010: 18
Total number of U.S. hyperthermia deaths of children left in cars, 2009: 33
Total number of U.S. hyperthermia deaths of children left in cars, 1998-2010: 463
Average number of U.S. child hyperthermia fatalities per year since 1998: 37
Circumstances
An examination of media reports about the 443 child vehicular hyperthermia deaths for an twelve year period (1998 through 2009) shows the following circumstances:
51% - child "forgotten" by caregiver (228 Children)
30% - child playing in unattended vehicle (131)
18% - child intentionally left in vehicle by adult (80)
1% - circumstances unknown (4)”
It’s shocking for me that parents will still leave a child in their car, with temperatures outside in the 80’s, 90’s and above. I’ve always believed that is one of the worse kind of child abuse. The sad thing is, it continues to happen each year.
Researcher Jan Null has been tracking data of fatalities due to hyperthermia, since the late 1990’s. He has already documented 18 fatalities this year, with 8 of them having been reported since June 13. Not all of these are because of a parent leaving the child in the car. Some were from children going back into an unlocked car, and getting locked in.
“In Portageville, Mo., 2-year-old twins Allannah and Alliya Larry were found dead in their grandmother's car on June 16 as temperatures pushed into the mid-90s. New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens said the children apparently got into the unlocked car on their own and were locked inside the vehicle for two hours.”(WRAL)
The following are statistics I pulled from http://ggweather.com/heat/index.htm, a report posted online by Jan Null, CCM, Adjunct Professor of Meteorology,San Francisco State University. Out of the 463 children that Null reported have died since 1998, he records that 30%, or 133, of these children were under the age of 1.
“STATISTICS
Total number of U.S. hyperthermia deaths of children left in cars, 2010: 18
Total number of U.S. hyperthermia deaths of children left in cars, 2009: 33
Total number of U.S. hyperthermia deaths of children left in cars, 1998-2010: 463
Average number of U.S. child hyperthermia fatalities per year since 1998: 37
Circumstances
An examination of media reports about the 443 child vehicular hyperthermia deaths for an twelve year period (1998 through 2009) shows the following circumstances:
51% - child "forgotten" by caregiver (228 Children)
30% - child playing in unattended vehicle (131)
18% - child intentionally left in vehicle by adult (80)
1% - circumstances unknown (4)”
