“As of May 25, nine children have died this year in the U.S. from being left in a vehicle – four during May alone,” writes Amy Artuso, home and community subject matter expert for the National Safety Council, in a new entry on NSC’s Safety First blog. “Even more alarming, the annual average number of deaths is 37 – about one child every nine days.”
Heat stroke is the No. 1 cause of non-crash-related motor vehicle deaths among children 14 and younger, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Of the 661 children who died of vehicle-related heat stroke between 1998 and 2015, 53 percent had been forgotten by a caregiver, 29 percent were playing in unattended vehicles and 17 percent were intentionally left in the vehicle. This does not include the significant number of near misses, when children are rescued before a fatality.
