Awareness Campaign Highlighting Child Safety Underway In Riverside County

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Law enforcement agencies throughout Riverside County Tuesday began their annual Purple Ribbon Month campaign by tying purple ribbons on patrol cars to remind residents never to leave children alone in parked vehicles during the heat of summer.

Purple Ribbon Month is observed every August in memory of children who died after being left locked in vehicles amid sweltering heat.

The Riverside Police Department, Riverside County Sheriff's Department, California Highway Patrol and other agencies are participating in the monthlong effort, inspired by the August 2000 death of 6-month-old Kaitlyn Marie Russell of Corona, who was locked in a hot van while her babysitter went shopping.

The act of negligence resulted in the Unattended Child in Motor Vehicle Act, better known as "Kaitlyn's Law," which established criminal penalties for leaving a youngster under 6 years old unsupervised in a vehicle for more than a few minutes.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group Safe Kids Worldwide, heatstroke claims the life of a child in the U.S. every eight days on average, mainly as a result of their being left in a broiling vehicle.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, between 1998 and 2014, 636 children died from vehicular heatstroke.

In its Safercar.gov fact sheet, the NTSB notes that in only 10 minutes, the temperature in a vehicle can rise 20 degrees -- even with the windows rolled down -- and heatstroke fatalities have occurred in vehicles parked in the shade, where the outside air temperature was 80 degrees or less.

County health officials urged anyone who sees a young child alone in a car to immediately call 911.

— By City News Service / Image via Shutterstock