Summer heat too often brings tragedy when parents underestimate the dangers of leaving children cars in the hot sun.
The bodies of babies and children heat up three to five times faster than an adult’s and their internal systems are not fully developed.
Children don’t sweat as efficiently as adults and their bodies absorb heat faster.
It can take as little as 15 minutes in an overheated vehicle for a child to begin to suffer life-threatening brain or kidney injuries.
When body temperature reaches 104 degrees, internal organs begin to shut down.
At 107 degrees, children die.
At least 529 such deaths have been recorded since 1998, including the two logged in the past week, according to figures from the Department of Geosciences at San Francisco State University, which tracks reports.
On average, 38 children die each year in hot cars, reports show. The numbers typically begin to climb in May, with an average of three deaths per month. They spike in July and August, when nine deaths, on average, are recorded, the figures show.Overall, more than half of the deaths — 52 percent — occur when a child is mistakenly left in a vehicle, typically by a parent or caregiver who is rushed or stressed.
