Get information, free resources and supporting documents to assist your work in Heatstroke Prevention.
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Child Safety
Overview: Heatstroke is one of the leading causes of non-crash fatalities among children.
Prevention Tips
- Always Look Before You Lock
- Keep in Mind a Child’s Sensitivity to Heat
- Understand the Potential Consequences of Kids in Hot Cars
Traffic Safety Marketing: Heatstroke Prevention Toolkit
Preventing Pediatric Vehicular Heatstroke: Awareness Starts Here
On average, 37 children die each year in the U.S. from being left alone in hot cars—tragic and entirely preventable incidents known as pediatric vehicular heatstroke. A vehicle’s interior can become deadly in minutes, and a child’s body heats up three to five times faster than an adult’s. These heartbreaking losses often happen during a moment of distraction or routine change.
To help prevent these tragedies, the National Safety Council has developed a series of free, practical toolkits and assets designed to raise awareness and empower action across every sector of the community.
Pediatric Vehicular Heatstroke Prevention Toolkits are tailored for:
- Hospital or Healthcare Organization
- Child Care
- Advocacy
- Employers and Retailers
- Indigenous Communities
Note: Tool kit files are shared via a cloud-based platform. If you have difficulty accessing the files, please contact Alexis Kagiliery, Program Manager, at [email protected] for assistance.
Each toolkit includes:
- 10–Minute E-Learning Course: Take a FREE online training course: Children in Hot Cars
- Posters
- Infographics
- Parking Lot Signage: Reminder to caregivers never to leave a child alone in a vehicle or if a bystander sees an unattended child permission to act.
- Window Cling: Print and distribute to parents to cling to their vehicle window as a reminder.
- Talking Points: Educate those around you on the dangers of children in hot cars.
- Customizable Emails
Whether you’re working with families, customers, employees, or neighbors—you can help save lives. Explore the toolkits and use these resources to make a difference today.
What Else Can You Do?
- Watch this video and share one father’s story: A Promise to Payton
- Take a free online training course: Children in Hot Cars (available in English and Spanish)
- Check out the Kids in Hot Cars Report – One Child is Too Many: A Legislative Look Across the U.S.
- Go to NSC Injury Facts: Hot Car Deaths
Tips and downloadable resources: safekids.org/heatstroke
Remember to ACT
- Avoid heatstroke.
- Create reminders.
- Take action.
Take Action Toolkit to Prevent Heatstroke
- Videos, Rapid Response Toolkit and Badge of Courage Award
- Tip Sheets, Talking Points, Sample Press Releases
- Infographics, Social Media Guide, Family Advocate Stories
- Resources for Child Care Providers and First Responders
Keeping Cars Safe for Kids: Working to Prevent Pediatric Heatstroke. This discussion focuses on ways to help prevent pediatric heatstroke through public awareness and technology advancements.
- Watch the Replay: Focus Driven Webinar (June 8, 2021)
Resources and information, including a voluntary commitment by vehicle manufacturers
Prevent Child Deaths in Hot Cars: healthychildren.org
- Facts about Hot Cars & Keeping Kids Safe
- Know the Laws in Your State
- Take Action if You See a Child Alone in a Car
- What to do if the child is not responsive or in pain
- What to do if the child is responsive
- Things You Can Do to Prevent the Unthinkable
Protecting Children from Extreme Heat: Information for Parents
- Prevention tips
- Potential Health Effects of Extreme Heat
- When to Call Your Pediatrician
Information about Extreme Heat
- Information available in Spanish
- Keep Kids Cool and Hydrated
- Tips for Traveling with children
- Signos y síntomas de advertencia de enfermedades relacionadas con el calor
Resource for children: Ready Wrigley Prepares for Extreme Heat
Protecting Children from Heatstroke in Vehicles
Watch: Kristin Kingsley, a mechanical engineer and auto safety policy consultant, moderates this recorded webinar. The featured speakers: Amy Artuso, senior program manager with the National Safety Council and former chair of the National Child Passenger Safety Board; and Jan Null, an adjunct professor/lecturer of meteorology at the University of San Francisco and San Jose State University.
Heatstroke in Cars
The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association is actively involved in efforts to prevent children from dying in hot cars. JPMA believes that the most universal way to avert these tragedies is to equip new passenger vehicles with reminder systems and consider the potential for retrofitting existing vehicles with such systems.
Read the full statement: JPMA Hyperthermia/Heatstroke Position Statement.
Heatstroke
Download these free resources to raise awareness of risks and prevent more tragedies:
- Child stories
- Fact sheets
- Safety tips
- Charts
- Graphics
- Public Service Announcements
- Sample social media posts
- Studies
What to Do If You See a Child Alone in a Vehicle?
Videos to Watch and Share
What’s the Law?
Find out what states have laws making it illegal to leave a child unattended in a vehicle.
Get up-to-date tracking of pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths and vehicle heating information from San Jose State University Adjunct Professor of Meterology Jan Null: noheatstroke.org
Share data and free resources
Prevent Child Injury is a national group of researchers, health and public health professionals, educators, child care professionals, parents, and other child advocates, working together to prevent injuries to children and adolescents in the U.S.
Prevent Child Injury offers toolkits of communications resources on injury topics and promotes coordinated outreach about prevention of child injury.
Heatstroke: Kids in Hot Cars – All of our resources are located here.