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Accidents Resulting from Children Left Unattended in Cars, On the Rise

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this week issued a warning to parents, to never leave their children unattended in cars. The agency issued a special consumer advisory in response to a spike in deaths involving children left unattended in cars, and suffocated to death.

California injury lawyers have been concerned at the spike in the numbers of such deaths since the beginning of last year. Since the beginning of 2010, a total of 18 children have died of hypothermia after children left unattended in cars that were locked. Since June 13 alone, a total of seven deaths from such situations have been reported. That is the largest spike in such deaths in the first half of the year, since researchers began keeping track of such fatalities in the late 90′s.

Research Jan Null who is tracking the data says that every year, approximately 37 children die on average from heat-related exhaustion after the  children left unattended in cars. Between 2003 and 2004 according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 27 children died in such accidents. The previous record for fatalities in the first six months of the year, was 17 fatalities between January and June 2009. There could be worse to come. July is expected to be the hottest month of the year, and there is an especially high risk of these accidents.

Since 1998, researchers have recorded a total of 463 deaths involving children left and attended in cars. Ironically enough, the number of children killed in such accidents seems to have increased after new laws made them safer in cars during accidents. Since the mid-1990s when laws requiring children to be safely restrained in child car safety seats came into effect in many states, the number of such accidents involving children left unattended in cars, has actually increased. Car safety seats have made children safer in transit, but they also seem to have made it more likely that parents will forget about the children in the backseat.

In 2010, six of the fatalities were reported from the state of Texas. Out of these, three fatalities occurred last month alone. Two other deaths each have been reported in Minnesota and Tennessee. Several of the deaths involved children who managed to gain access inside cars, locked themselves in, and couldn’t get out. A little child is at a special risk when he is in an enclosed vehicle, because his internal body temperature rises much quicker than an adult’s does. A child does not have to be left for hours inside a closed vehicle to be a suffocated. Heat exhaustion can set in pretty quickly.

This summer, a number of safety organizations are ramping up efforts to spread awareness among parents about not leaving their children left unattended in cars. Safe Kids USA and Kids in Cars have initiated nationwide awareness efforts to bring attention to this real, but underappreciated, problem. Data indicates that parents of children who are involved in such accidents are not negligent or reckless. In most of these cases, it seems to be an honest mistake or forgetfulness.

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