Program Partners:
NoHeatstroke.org
Since 1998, more than 900 children have died of vehicular heatstroke because they were left or became trapped in a hot car. It’s important for everyone to understand that children are more vulnerable to heatstroke and that all hot car deaths are preventable. We — as parents, caregivers and bystanders — play a role in helping to make sure another death doesn’t happen.
If you’ve missed a meeting or want to review an older session, please click here to see the full playlist.
Safe Kids Worldwide, KidsAndCars.org, Jan Null (noheatstroke.org) and the National Safety Council work together with many other partners to help eliminate these preventable tragedies, and we’re asking you to join us. Below you will find free monthly newsletters that include sample social media posts, resources and personal stories – in short, tools you can use to help inform others and ensure that no family has to endure the loss of a child to heatstroke in hot cars.
Heatstroke Prevention Newsletters:
While there are three primary circumstances that typically lead to pediatric vehicular heatstroke (PVH) deaths, a little more than half of all PVH deaths over the past 20 years have resulted from children who were unknowingly left in the vehicle. It is commonly reported that in the course of a drive, a parent or caretaker loses awareness of the presence of a child in the back seat of the car. Upon arriving at the destination, the driver exits the car and unknowingly leaves the child in the car. This incomprehensible lapse of memory exposes forgotten children to hazards, including death from heatstroke. More than 400 children in the past 20 years have suffered from heatstroke after being unknowingly forgotten in vehicles. How can loving and attentive parents, with no evidence of substance abuse or an organic brain disorder, have a catastrophic lapse of memory that places a child’s welfare in jeopardy? The articles below by Dr. David Diamond address this question.
The Issue: nhtsa.gov/campaign/heatstrokeNHTSA Virtual Press Event: April 29, 2021
Tips and downloadable resources: safekids.org/heatstroke
Did you know 1 in every 5 crashes occurs in a parking lot or parking garage? Or that as many as two-thirds of drivers may be pulling into or out of parking spaces while distracted? Distraction is also a contributing factor in some child heatstroke deaths in hot cars. Approximately 25% of all pediatric hot car deaths since 1998 have occured in a parked car at the driver’s place of work. Click on the Parking Lot Toolkit tab here and work to educate employees about distraction in parking lots.
Up-to-date tracking of PVH deaths at NoHeatstroke.org
Fact Sheet and Safety Tips (English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic)
Information about Extreme Heat
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.
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.
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.
Resources and information, including a voluntary commitment by vehicle manufacturers