Alarming rise in kids locked in searing cars

PARENTS are being warned against winter complacency after a spike in the number of children being locked in cars.

Kirwan police had to smash a car window at a local shopping centre to free a two- yearold boy who had been accidentally locked inside.

Police and other emergency services have attended several calls to kids trapped in cars during the past week, prompting the warning from police, who reminded parents it was illegal to intentionally leave a child under 12 unattended or for an unreasonable time.

Health and Wellbeing North Ward GP Dr Andrew Skerman said temperatures inside cars could go above 40C within five minutes and soar over 70C within 10- 15 minutes.

He said tinted windows and slightly open windows made little difference in Townsville conditions.

Dr Skerman advised parents not to take the risk as they could “never know” when they would get delayed.

Townsville Hospital’s director of emergency medicine Dr Luke Lawton said one of the main problems was that young children were often unable to free themselves.

He said heat stroke was the main risk children faced when locked in cars.

Heat stroke can lead to decreased consciousness, seizures, cardiac and respiratory failure and even organ failure, and can be fatal in the most severe cases.

“It’s a really unpredictable progression,” Dr Lawton said.

He said young children were less effective at regulating their own body temperatures, making them more susceptible than adults to intense heat.

They were also more likely to panic and breathe rapidly, speeding up the effects of heat stroke.

“We have seen fatalities ( from heat stroke) in Townsville,” Dr Lawton said.

The Bulletin reported last November that a backpacker working as a fruit picker in Ayr died from heat stroke.

The 27- year- old Belgian collapsed while picking watermelons on a day when the maximum temperature was 30.5C.