Event shows danger of hot cars
William D’Aiuto had a clear message to parents: Anyone can lose their child to heatstroke in a hot car.
“It’s a natural response to think ‘this would never happen to me,’ but be assured that parents who lost a child in a hot car incident used to think the same thing,” said D’Aiuto, regional managing director for the Florida Department of Children and Families.
D’Aiuto delivered the warning Monday at a car-safety event at Children’s Safety Village, an Orlando nonprofit dedicated to preventing injuries and deaths in children.
The issue takes on greater urgency at this time of year, as summer temperatures rise into the 80s and 90s.
According to the nonprofit Safe Kids Worldwide, temperatures inside a parked car can rise nearly 20 degrees in 10 minutes.
To prove the point, a demonstration Monday used a car on asphalt with two thermometers, one on the dashboard, the other on the ground outside.
At one point, the outside temperature measured 109 degrees while the inside temperature was 152 degrees. The inside thermometer consistently showed temperatures far higher than those outside.
Deputies also showed how they would rescue a child from a locked car.
They broke the front passenger window, unlocked the rear door and retrieved a babydoll prop from the back seat.
Orange County Fire Rescue emergency medical technicians loaded the doll onto a gurney and into an ambulance.
D’Aiuto said nearly 40 children die every year from being left in hot cars.
Children from infants to 4 or 5 years old are vulnerable, said Sgt. Kim Montes, a Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman.
“What happens is, a lot of times, the older kids get into the car playing … and then for some random reason, they’re unable to get out,” she said.
Children are more susceptible to heatstroke because they are unable to regulate their body temperature, which rises three to five times faster than adults’, according to Safe Kids Worldwide.
Carrisa Johns, an occupant protection specialist for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, said heatstroke begins when a person’s body temperature rises above 104 degrees. The organs shut down at 107 degrees, she said.
In June alone, 17 children in Florida died between 1990 and 2016 after being left in hot cars, according to Kids and Cars, a national nonprofit child safety organization.
In February, a 1-year-old boy died after a relative left him in a car outside a house in MiamiDade County for about an hour while the temperature outside topped 80 degrees, police said. A 2-year-old boy died the same month after being left in a sport utility in Hillsborough County for more than five hours.
Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Chris Sorvillo said the best way to avoid forgetting a child is to eliminate distractions.
“Life’s busy; life throws a lot of obstacles,” Sorvillo said. “We have a lot of things at our disposal now while driving — cellphones, social media, that type of thing going on.”
He recommended putting an object, such as a phone, near the child as a reminder to retrieve both before leaving the car.
A 2015, the Florida Department of Health report on summer heat says Florida’s hottest daytime temperatures occur in the inland and northern parts of the state.
North Central Florida and the Panhandle experienced a higher number of emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses compared to the rest of the state from 2005-2012.
Orlando has reached 100 degrees or higher six times from 1985 to 2013, according to the report.