You Have to Act Fast When You Find a Child In a Hot Car
You Have to Act Fast When You Find a Child In a Hot Car
Finding a child in a hot car could happen anywhere, at almost anytime. Kids get into locked vehicles and can’t get out, or parents forget their children are in the back when they arrive at their destination. Maybe a caregiver will only be a minute, but the pharmacy line is longer than expected. How do you react in this situation? What are you allowed to do if you find a child in a car on a hot day?
What do you do if you find a child unattended in a car?
Picture this: you’re walking through the parking lot on a hot summer day when you hear something out of the ordinary. A child is crying. But from where? You look around and see a little one fussing in the backseat of a car near you, but there is no one else in the car or around it. You don’t know how long the child has been in the car, and you need to act fast.
The first thing you should do is call 9-1-1 and report an unattended child in a locked vehicle. They’ll dispatch the appropriate emergency team, including police and medical personnel. The dispatcher will keep you on the line, ask questions about the situation, and provide further direction on what to do. Usually, this involves staying with the child and not leaving the area.
If someone else is passing by, and you can get their attention without losing sight of the child, ask them to run into the closest store to see if they’ll make an announcement looking for the caregiver. If they’re nearby and respond quickly, they can get the child out of the car, or start the A/C to help cool the child down.
You can also ask the dispatcher about getting the child out of the vehicle. They may ask you to check to see if the doors are locked or ultimately break a window to get the child out. Most states have laws that protect you from legal action if there is a life in danger.
Once that is done, continue to follow the advice of the dispatcher or emergency personnel once they have arrived on site. Remember – unless the dispatcher directs you to do something different, keep the child onsite.
If the police or medical team have not arrived yet, consider reporting any signs of heatstroke to the dispatcher. These include symptoms like:
- Red skin that feels hot and dry
- No sweating
- Irregular pulse
- Nausea
- Confusion
The dispatcher will continue to give you directions to care for the child trapped in a car until the emergency team is onsite.
During all of this, please remember to keep your cool. You won’t help anyone if you start panicking. If you need to, stop and take a deep breath to clear your head. Remain calm, follow these steps, and you can save a life.
During all of this, please remember to keep your cool. You won’t help anyone if you start panicking. If you need to, stop and take a deep breath to clear your head. Remain calm, follow these steps, and you can save a life.
What can happen if you leave a child in a car?
A child’s body heats five times faster than an adult body.
Every ten minutes, the temperature increases by twenty degrees. This means it can take less than an hour for a child to die of heatstroke. In warmer months, it can take minutes for a child to become overheated. A child can suffer from a permanent injury, such as a seizure disorder or death.
Every year, an average of 39 children and pets die due to heatstroke from being left behind in a car.
If you see something, don’t walk away. You never know when intervening can save someone’s life.
Remember: Cars are not babysitters, so don’t think that “just a few minutes” in a store is going to be okay. Your car battery could die, or the A/C could just quit working, and your child is not stuck in a rapidly heating vehicle.
Set alarms and make it a habit to check your entire vehicle every time you exit, and lock your car and put your keys out of reach at home. Most of the time, children who pass from a hot car death are left in the vehicle on accident.
BabySav‘s mission is to lower the average of children dying in hot cars down to zero. We don’t want any more families suffering from the loss of a child that could have been preventable. With this information, we hope that you utilize this process if you ever find yourself in the situation of finding a child trapped in a car by themselves.
