Hot Car Deaths: Washington Law Protects Kids, Animals

SEATTLE, WA - Puget Sound is in the midst of a heat wave, which can be a verydangerous time for kids and pets due to vehicular heatstroke. Fewer than half of U.S. states have any kind of law addressing it, but Washington has three.

Overall, Washington received a B grade from the National Safety Council for safety laws, including ones punishing people who leave kids and animals in hot cars. Only 21 states have such laws, and only eight of those include the possibility of felony charges when children are deliberately left alone in hot cars.

Some laws lack teeth — police in Rhode Island, for example, give a verbal warning if someone leaves a child alone in a car. Other laws suggest there are time periods when children are “safe” in a hot car, the opposite of what the National Safety Council wants people to know: Children are never safely left unattended in a car.

Washington ranks 33rd nationally in the nearly 20-year database kept by kidsandcars.org that tracks hot car deaths by state from 1999-2013. Washington had six deaths over that span.

Even when outdoor temperatures are cool, closed up cars trap heat quickly and become deadly for children. On hot, summer days like we’re having right now, the danger is especially acute for children — and older dependent adults and pets.

When the outside temperature is around 86, interior temperatures can go up at least 19 degrees in as few as 10 minutes, according to a 2005 study that looked at the “greenhouse effect” the sun can have on vehicles. Young kids and babies dehydrate more quickly than adults and are unable to regulate their body temperatures, so their bodies heat up three to five times faster and their organs begin to shut down more quickly.

Here are to the two pertinent laws dealing with hot car deaths in Washington:

• Leaving a minor under the age of 16 in a parked car or one with the motor running is a misdemeanor; a second violation can result in a revocation of a driver's license
• No child under age 12 can be left in a car while the operator of the vehicle enters a bar or any business that sells alcohol
• It's a civil infraction in Washington to leave an animal in a car if weather - hot or cold - puts the animal in jeopardy; police can break into your car to free the animal

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