With Early Heat, Hot Car Safety Maryland Parents Need To Know

Summer-like heat and humidity have settled into Maryland.

It was 91 degrees in Baltimore at 4 p.m. on Saturday, where temperatures were on the rise for the second consecutive day.

With temperatures in the 80s on Friday, nine students in Anne Arundel County were hospitalized on their way home from a field trip due to dehydration, WBAL reported.

Especially during hot spells, authorities remind parents and guardians to be mindful regarding children in cars. Maryland law states that no child under 8 years old shall be left alone unattended in a vehicle.

Safety advocates stress that a child’s body can overheat three to five times faster than an adult.

"It is never OK to leave kids or pets in a car — even with the windows down,” Dr. Christopher McStay, an emergency room doctor and assistant professor of emergency medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center, told WebMD. “It is an absolute no-no."

Take action if you see a child alone in a vehicle. Call 911 immediately.

Last year, a total of 39 children died when left in hot cars nationwide, and five heatstroke deaths have already happened in 2017 in the United States, according to noheatstroke.org.

Common factors in the cases of hot car deaths are parents who are stressed, functioning on too little sleep or changing a daily routine, say experts.

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The public can help by taking immediate action if a child is alone in a vehicle in the heat.

"Call 911, and try to find the driver," says Janette Fennell, founder and president of KidsAndCars.org. "But if the child is in imminent danger, it may be necessary to break the window furthest away from the child to rescue them."

How to help a pet left in a hot car:

On an 85-degree day, the temperature inside a car with the windows opened slightly can reach 102 degrees within 10 minutes and 120 degrees after 30 minutes. Pets may suffer irreversible organ damage or die.

If people notice a pet in a hot car, they can take these steps to help:

• Take down the car's make, model and license plate number.
• Notify managers or security guards at any nearby businesses and ask them to make an announcement to find the car's owner. Many people are unaware of the danger of leaving pets in hot cars and will quickly return to their vehicle once they are alerted.
• Call the non-emergency number of the local police or animal control if the owner can't be found, and wait by the car for them to arrive. In Maryland, public safety officials and officers of organizations for preventing animal cruelty may use force to remove a cat or dog that may be in danger in a vehicle.

Medical experts attribute hot car deaths to parents not realizing just how quickly it can get hot inside a vehicle left unattended.

“On a day that is just 72 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature [inside a car] can increase by 30 to 40 degrees in an hour," Dr. Christopher Haines, director of pediatric emergency medicine at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, told WebMD. "And 70 percent of this increase occurs the first 30 minutes.

Heat stroke typically occurs when body temperature passes 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to medical experts. Such internal heat overwhelms the brain's temperature control, causing symptoms such as dizziness, disorientation, agitation, confusion, sluggishness, seizure, loss of consciousness and/or death.

There were 17 heat-related deaths in Maryland during the state's 2016 heat monitoring period, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Typically, the department keeps an eye on heat from May to September, but this year the temperatures are soaring at the end of April.

Patch has compiled these hot car safety tips for parents from KidsandCars.org and Parents.com.

Tips For Busy Parents

Review this list and keep a printout in your vehicle as a reminder and checklist for the summer.

• Never leave children alone in or around cars; not even for a minute.
• Put your purse, briefcase, cell phone or lunch in the backseat so you are sure to look before you lock the door.
• Use drive-through services when available at restaurants, banks, pharmacies, dry cleaners, etc. to remain in the vehicle with your child. Use your card to pay for gas at the pump.
• "Look before you lock" — Open the back door every time you park to ensure no child was left behind.
• Put your child’s car seat in the middle of the backseat rather than behind the driver so it’s easier to see.
• Arrange with your day-care center or babysitter to call if your child is not there as scheduled.
• Lock your vehicles at all times — even in the garage or driveway – so kids can’t climb in. Keep keys and remote openers out of the reach of children. Check vehicles and car trunks first when a child is missing.
• Keep a large stuffed animal in the child’s car seat when it’s empty; move the toy to the front seat when a child is riding in the car seat as a visual reminder that a child is on board.
• Take action if you see a child alone in a vehicle. Call 911 immediately

Parenting magazine also offers some tips to avoid hot car tragedies:

"Never assume someone else — a spouse, an older child — has taken a young kid out of her seat," the magazine says. "Such miscommunication has led to more than a few hot-car deaths.

Some parents and guardians might want to invest in a device designed to help them remember their tiny passengers. For example, a monitor plays a lullaby when the car stops and a child is in the seat. Or the ChildMinder System sounds an alarm if you walk away and leave your child in the seat ($69.95).

Put visual cues in your office and home. Static-cling decals reminding you to check the car seat are available at Kidsandcars.org.