Cars and Kids:
A Deadly Mix
Meteorologist Jan Null collects the kind of data that can save young
lives. Since 1998, when the adjunct professor began his research, 230
babies and toddlers in the United States have died of hyperthermia after
being forgotten inside cars on warm days.
"The Transportation Safety Board tracks fatalities only on the
highways," Null says. "That leaves out the deaths that happen
in parking lots, driveways, garages -- places where children would most
likely be left in a car."
As part of his research, Null records the temperature rise inside cars
under various scenarios. Even on a mild day of 70 degrees, Null says,
"the inside temperature of a car will rise 29 degrees in just 20
minutes -- and that's with the windows cracked." This can be fatal,
he adds, for children, as well as for pets.
In recent years, California State Assemblywoman Jackie Speier turned
to Null for statistics to back a bill protecting children from car-interior
hyperthermia. Passed in 2001 and named after a young victim, Kaitlyn's
Law forbids anyone from leaving a child under 6 alone in a car.
Ironically, Null says that the number of small children who have overheated
in cars has risen since air bags were introduced as a safety device.
"Once we learned that air bags could injure or kill a child in
the front seat and we started securing kids in the back -- dads, moms,
grandparents or other caregivers began to forget that they had a child
sleeping in the back seat," Null says. In one case last year, each
of the parents of a little girl assumed that the other had their child.
By the time they realized what had happened, it was too late.
Null is now called as an expert witness in court cases of child hyperthermia.
In July, the prestigious online medical journal Pediatrics
published a paper addressing hyperthermic deaths of children, co-authored
by Null and emergency physicians at Stanford Medical Center.
Recently, car and automotive accessory manufacturers have started to
experiment with weight sensors that sound an alarm when the weight of
a child is detected after car doors have been shut and locked.
For more information: http://ggweather.com/heat/