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Children, Pets and Vehicles

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chart showing number of children who died in hot cars by year Heat stroke deaths by children in 2024 practice heat safety at work, home, in your vehicle and outdoors pregnant women, newborns, children, elderly, those with chronic illnesses are all especially subject to quickly overheating, Never leave them in a car.

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It is NEVER safe to leave a toddler, disabled person or pet locked in a car, even in the winter. If you have a toddler in your household, lock your cars, even in your own driveway.  Kids play in cars or wander outside and get into a car and can die in 10 minutes! Based on data from 1998-2022, an average of an average of 38 childhood heatstroke fatalities occur each year. Pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths (PVHD) have occurred year-round. See the latest information on PVHD here. The graph above is courtesy of San Jose State University which has a site that offers more details on how these deaths occurred, age of victims, etc. Use of this graph does not imply NWS endorsement of services provided by San Jose State University.  The National Safety Council (NSC) offers a 10-minute online training module "Children in Hot Cars" which has  a wealth of valuable information.

+ Never leave children, disabled adults or pets in parked vehicles!

+ How fast can the sun heat a car?

The sun's shortwave radiation (yellow in figure below) heats objects that it strikes.  For example, a dark dashboard or seat can easily reach temperatures in the range of 180 to over 200°F. These objects (e.g., dashboard, steering wheel, child seat) heat the adjacent air by conduction and convection and also give off longwave radiation (red in figure below) which is very efficient at warming the air trapped inside a vehicle. Shown below are time lapse photos of thermometer readings in a car over a period of less than an hour. As the animation shows, in just over 2 minutes the car went from a safe temperature to an unsafe temperature of 94.3°F. This demonstration shows just how quickly a vehicle can become a death trap for a child.

Objects Heated by the Sun Warm Vehicle's Air

parked vehicle
CLICK HERE FOR ANIMATION (700K)
( Hi-Res ~ 2.5 mb.WMV file)
Individual Frames:
0 min, 10 min, 20 min, 30 min, 40 min, 50 min, 60 min 
Animation Courtesy of General Motors and San Francisco State University. Use of this animation does not imply NWS endorsement of services provided by General Motors and San Francisco State University. 

+ Heat Stroke Risk

Hyperthermia deaths aren't confined to summer months. They also happen during the spring and fall. Below are just a few of MANY tragedies.

  • North Augusta, SC, April: A mother left her a 15-month-old son in a car. He was in a car for 9 hours while his mom went to work. She is now serving a 20-year prison sentence.
  • Honolulu, HI, March: A 3-year-old girl died when the father left her in a child seat for 1.5 hours while he visited friends in a Waikiki apartment building. The outside temperature was only 81 degrees.
  • Greenville, TX, December: A 6-month-old boy died after being left in a car for more than 2 hours by his mother. She was charged with murder. The temperature rose to 81 degrees on that day.

Adults also are susceptible to hyperthermia in vehicles. On July 12, 2001, a man died of heat stroke after falling asleep in his car with the windows rolled up in the parking lot of a supermarket in Hinds County, MS.