Hot Car Deaths: North Carolina Has Huge Problem

Summerlike weather has arrived to much of the United States, and with it comes one of the most dangerous time for kids, 42 of whom died in hot cars last year. A new report from the National Safety Council shows that even as deaths due to vehicular heatstroke rise, fewer than half of U.S. states have any kind of law addressing it.

Every state, including ours, is lacking in protections for preventable deaths and injuries, failing to receive an A grade from the safety council.

What does exist in 21 states is a patchwork of laws, only eight of which include the possibility of felony charges when children are deliberately left alone in hot cars. Some laws lack teeth — police in Rhode Island, for example, give a verbal warning if someone leaves a child alone in a car. Other laws suggest there are time periods when children are “safe” in a hot car, the opposite of what the National Safety Council wants people to know: Children are never safely left unattended in a car.

North Carolina got a “C” from the National Safety Council for failing to implement policy changes that could help reduce the number of preventable deaths. Our state ranks sixth nationally in the nearly 20-year database kept by kidsandcars.org that tracks hot car deaths by state from 1999-2017.

A Good Samaritan law offers protection to people who might rescue kids from hot cars, but our state law doesn’t address any of the circumstances that caused 33 kids to die in hot cars from during that period. Read the full North Carolina safety report card.

Here’s the problem: Even when outdoor temperatures are cool, closed up cars trap heat quickly and become deadly for children. On hot, summer days like we’re having right now, the danger is especially acute for children — and older dependent adults and pets.

When the outside temperature is around 86, interior temperatures can go up at least 19 degrees in as few as 10 minutes, according to a 2005 study that looked at the “greenhouse effect” the sun can have on vehicles. Young kids and babies dehydrate more quickly than adults and are unable to regulate their body temperatures, so their bodies heat up three to five times faster and their organs begin to shut down more quickly.

Hot car deaths, which average 37 a year, aren’t limited to extreme heat states like Texas, Florida and California, where kids most often die under such circumstances. All but three states reported at least one vehicular heatstroke during the period kidsandcars.org studied. Excluding crashes, heatstroke is the leading cause of death in vehicles for children 14 years and younger.

The National Safety Council is pushing for uniform laws across the state to protect children. Among its recommendations are stronger laws to prosecute parents who knowingly leave their kids alone in vehicles for any amount of time — the case in about 18 percent of hot car deaths, the report said.

The study looked at 408 cases involving hot-car deaths during the decade ending in 2017, finding:

• Confirmed, no charges filed: 68 (16.7 percent)
• Went to jail: 71 (17.4 percent)
• Plea deal or conviction with probation and no jail time: 52 (12.7 percent)
• Charges either dropped or suspect was aquitted: 16 (3.9 percent)
• No charges filed: 80 (19.6 percent)
• Charges filed, but result not known: 60 (14.7 percent)
• Unknown outcome: 61 (15 percent)

Among other recommendations, the National Safety Council:

• Said day care centers and other places that are drop-off sites for children should develop policies requiring final checks to make sure all children have exited from a vehicle;
• Called for a robust public awareness campaign focusing on the problem; and
• Said more study is needed on the various factors that might cause a parent to forget a child in a back seat.

In many cases, that’s what happens, though.

The report includes a first-person account by Reginald McKinnon, who forgot to drop off his daughter, Payton Lyn, at daycare and left her sleeping in the car. He had taken her to a doctor’s appointment before work and planned to drop her off at daycare, which was about a block away from his office.

“For reasons I still cannot comprehend, even today, I returned to work after the appointment and forgot my daughter was sleeping in my vehicle,” he wrote in the report. “The nightmare that followed will haunt me and my family for the rest of our lives.”

In the years since, McKinnon has been an advocate for greater awareness of hyperthermia — another term for heatstroke — and says the deaths of his daughter and 741 others who have died since 1999 are “completely preventable.”

Among those deaths, 54 percent were of children who had been forgotten by their parents or caregivers. Another 27 percent were of children who got into cars while playing.

To the question rolling over in McKinnon’s mind — how could he, an attentive and engaged father, have forgotten his child? — his doctor and therapist helped him to understand that when people are rushing, their minds go into “autopilot,” mechanically following a normal routine.

“In my mind’s eye I had taken her to daycare,” he wrote “But that wasn’t the case.”

The National Safety Council offers this checklist:

For Lawmakers

• Eliminate “safe” time periods from legislation.
• Expand laws to apply to any person supervising a child who knowingly leaves a child unattended in a motor vehicle.
• Clearly define the age of responsponsible or supervising individuals.
• Clearly define and/or increase the age of persons that should not be left unattended.
• Include protection for vulnerable individuals left unattended in motor vehicles.
• Protect “any person” who acts to rescue a child in good faith.
• Expand scope to allow individuals to take action if a child is in physical danger or “poses a danger to others.”
• Direct funds received from fines to support education programs for parents, caregivers and offenders

For Parents and Caregivers

• Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle, even for a minute.
• Educate everyone who cares for your child about vehicle heating dynamics.
• Make “Look Before You Lock” a routine.
• Place a reminder in your vehicle to check the back seat at your destination.
• Reduce risk by sticking to a routine and avoiding distractions.
• Schedule a call as a reminder to ensure your child arrives at their destination, especially if your routine changes.
• Ask your child care provider to call you if your child does not arrive as expected.
• Ensure children do not have access to keys or key fobs.
• Teach children vehicles are not play areas.
• Immediately check vehicles if a child is missing.

For the Public

• Take action immediately if you see an unattended child in a vehicle.
• Be an ambassador for child safety.
• Child care providers should implement policies to ensure all children exit a facility vehicle upon arrival at their destination.
• Workplace prevention measures should be implemented.

Legislation pending in Congress and included in the federal Self Drive Act would require automakers to add visual and audio reminders to in-vehicle software. It passed the House in 2017. A comparable AV Start Act introduced in the Senate the same year passed the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and awaits a vote of the full Senate.

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Original story by Patch Editor Beth Dalbey

Image: In more than half of hot-car death cases, parents simply forget their child is in the back seat. Among tips to prevent a tragedy is keeping a stuffed toy in the front seat, and make putting it in the child car seat a routine every time you exit the car. (Photo via Shutterstock)