How it feels to be locked in a hot car
Lorraine Sommerfeld endures 52C heat for an hour to find it’s no place for any living thing.
I made it to the 50-minute point before I thought I was going to throw up.
Not bad, actually, when you consider I was sitting in a car in the middle of a parking lot, the outdoor temperature a relatively breezy 26 C (79 F) while the air surrounding me had reached 50 C (122 F).
If you leave your child or pet in a car in hot weather, they could die. Fast.
There are two scenarios to this topic, and each is different.
The first is people who have absent-mindedly left their child in a car — usually after a change in morning routine — to catastrophic effect. Every single person who swears this could never happen to them needs to read the Pulitzer Prize-winning piece from Gene Weingarten at The Washington Post, called Fatal distraction: Forgetting a child in the back seat of a car is a horrifying mistake. Is it a crime?
It could happen to you. Science explains how.
This tragic occurrence — a parent not realizing they have left a child behind — is vastly different from those who knowingly do so. I decided to give a voice to your dog (the one you just told “I’ll be right back”) and to your kid (who finally fell asleep after crying and fussing for so long. Who wants to wake him?).
Within 10 minutes, the interior thermometer in the car had already jacked up to 31 C (87 F). OK, I was a little surprised at how fast that happened, but I chalked it up to being spoiled for years by air conditioning.
What’s merely “uncomfortable” for an adult can be dangerous for a child; kids heat up three to five times faster. If that child is upset or terrified, the number ramps up even more. Dogs can only cool themselves by panting and sweating through their paws. Your 10 minutes doesn’t equal their 10 minutes.
Your closed car isn’t a shelter from the heat. Black interiors, along with all that glass, trap the air, heat it up and reflect it. It’s a very efficient oven, and cracking a window open a couple of inches is about as effective at cooling it off as opening your oven door an inch. It doesn’t do much to bring the internal temperature down.
By the 20-minute point, I became aware that I’d given up on moving. At all. Any exertion made me more uncomfortable, and it was easier just to sit there. Think about that: your dog isn’t just sitting there at this point; he’s jumping around, trying to get out. Every exertion makes his body less able to cope with the heat. Your child would be sobbing by now. If trapped in a child seat, he’d be struggling to get out.
My temperature, which had started out a normal 38.6 C (98 F), had already risen one degree Celsius and not only had I not exerted myself at all, I was doing this intentionally. I knew what was happening.
By 30 minutes, I was lightheaded. My videographer, Clayton Seams, knocked on the glass and asked if I wanted to kill the experiment. No. I’d been hotter than this, right?
By 40 minutes, sweat was running down both arms. I couldn’t hold a pen anymore. My personal temperature had risen another degree Celsius. A headache had started that was still thudding four hours later. I had water with me, and Clayton motioned for me to take a swig.
At this temperature, common sense starts to get murky.
By 50 minutes, I’m very much staring at the clock, my own twisted New Year’s countdown. The thermometer has synced up with the time: 50 C (122 F). I wanted to open the door. I wanted a shower. I wanted to prove how easily you could overlook something that can become deadly in a matter of minutes.
People will argue their nineyear-old is perfectly fine for 15 minutes. Nothing is “perfectly fine” locked in a car in summer, even on overcast days.
Your cars should be locked when in your driveway so kids can’t play hide and seek in them. Leave your pets at home if they can’t come in with you at your destination. Never leave anyone alone in a car that he or she can’t get out of on his or her own.
Police and insurance companies tell me I could be charged or held responsible for breaking a window to help a child or pet stuck in a hot car, and they suggest people call 911 if they see either in a car unattended during the summer months. You can take a picture of a licence plate if someone shows up and takes off yelling at you (a common response) and police can have a chat with them later.
At the 60-minute point, the internal temperature of the car reached 52 C (126 F). After today, I’ll tell you this for free: I’ll risk the charge. If I see your child or pet in a locked car, I’m breaking that window.