Locking it up is not hot

THERE are things in life we need to experience, things we need to learn, and things that are basic common sense.

In this day and age, it is difficult to believe that it would come as a shock to anybody to learn that locking children and animals in cars on a hot day is potentially fatal.

And yet every summer the reports flow in of people — be they ignorant or otherwise — leaving children unattended in cars on hot, summer days.

And it isn’t just one or two cases each summer — as we report today, there have been 22 instances of children left in hot cars in the Geelong region alone since the start of December.

That number is almost unfathomable.

How is it possible that these people are unaware of the dangers of locking living things in a hot, confined space with limited air supply?

Even without the widespread awareness campaign that has been run by emergency services in recent years, there is a fair level of common sense involved.

Sadly, people either don’t think or don’t care, and we are just fortunate that the summer has passed so far without any deadly consequences.

Not so fortunate are the emergency services personnel whose time has been taken by these call-outs in recent weeks.

Across the state, emergency workers were called out to around six cases a day, every day, of kids locked in hot cars last summer. While these workers have undoubtedly saved the lives of countless children, it seems like a gross mismanagement of time and resources being spent every summer on a problem that, if people just used their common sense, really shouldn’t exist.

We have already enjoyed a couple of hot days this week, with another 30C day forecast for tomorrow. If you feel hot, imagine how uncomfortable it would be locked in car with a temperature around 20-30C hotter than outside.

It really is just common sense — hot vehicles and little bodies don’t mix. And there is no situation where it is OK to leave your kids locked inside a car.