The first National Child Vehicular Heatstroke Awareness and Prevention Day is Wednesday, April 26.
This is an opportunity to recognize the risk before the true summer heat hits the Midwest.
Unfortunately heat stroke deaths for children are not a rare, isolated occurrence, if they're trapped in cars. In 2017, there have already been five deaths.
- A boy, 1, died Feb. 6 in Pinecrest, FL
- A boy, 2, died Feb. 28 in Brandon, FL
- A girl, 3, died March 28 in Ville Platte, LA
- A boy, 1, died April 4 in Vestavia, AL
- A boy, 23 months, died April 14 in Burleson, TX
This can be particularly dangerous because a child's body heats up 3 to 5 times faster than an adult's.
Since 1990 almost 800 children have died in these preventable tragedies.
One thing that a parent can do to help prevent this would be putting an important item next to their child's car seat. That way they have to go in the backseat before they leave their car. Good examples would be a purse, wallet or cell phone.
On average 37 children die needlessly each year from heat stroke from being left in a car.
Last year there were 39 deaths of this kind.
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