In 2024, 40 children died in hot cars in the US. They ranged in age from infancy to 8 years old, and the majority were accidently left in the vehicle. A few climbed inside the car without their parents' knowledge, and several were left in the car while parents went to work or ran errands.
To understand why these tragedies happen, we talked to Rick Musson, a 23-year law enforcement officer who has responded to several calls about children being left in cars.
According to Musson and our research, the following scenarios tend to occur when kids are accidentally left in cars:
- The baby falls asleep and is quiet, so the parent forgets they're there.
- There's a change in routine where the parent who normally doesn't have the child is now driving with them. They may forget the child is there because they're not in the habit of checking.
- When traveling together, both parents may think the other one got the baby out of the car, but neither did.
- Parents get distracted or sleep deprived and forget their child in the backseat.
"When it happens to young children, the facts are often the same: An otherwise loving and attentive parent one day gets busy, or distracted, or upset, or confused by a change in his or her daily routine, and just... forgets a child is in the car." —Gene Weingarten
Parents who knowingly leave their kids in the car may not realize how fast cars heat up or how long they've been gone.
"When it's mild, the inside of a car can increase by a degree a minute, so within half an hour, a 75-degree car can warm up to 105 degrees," Musson says. "It doesn't have to be the middle of summer. Even on an 80-degree day, the inside of a car can be as hot as 120 degrees."
Musson tells us he once responded to a call where a father believed he had only left the child for five minutes, but it had actually been closer to one hour. At that point, the car would have easily been over 110 degrees. In such extreme heat, people (and pets) quickly lose the ability to regulate their internal body temperature. Heatstroke occurs with a body temp of 104 degrees, and death occurs at 107 degrees.
Parents may think it's safe to leave a child in the car with a window open, but the CDC warns that this isn't enough to keep the car cool. As for leaving the air conditioning running, cars can malfunction or run out of fuel, and we found at least one report of a child who is believed to have died after turning the AC off.
So, what can we do?
"Parents should get in the habit of checking the back seat every time they leave the car, regardless of whether their child is there," says Musson. "Establishing that habit can help protect you from forgetting your child. Always check."
You can also toss your phone into the back seat so you have to retrieve it—and your baby—before continuing with your day. Check with your partner to make sure they dropped the baby off at daycare before going to work, especially if that's not part of their typical routine.
The devices listed below can also help. Ideally, you can choose two or three products to give you a stronger safety net for remembering your child.
If you see a child in a hot car, call 911. Musson says to get them out of the car if they're in distress, even if that means breaking a window. (Don't break the window closest to the child to protect them from broken glass.)
"If the child is unresponsive and hot, try to cool them down by getting them out of the sun, taking off clothes, and using water to cool their skin," Musson advises.
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