Emergency responders warn of dangers of leaving kids alone in cars

Ten minutes may seem like a quick trip inside the store, but emergency responders say that’s all it takes for temperatures inside a car to turn deadly if a child is inside.

A Rock Hill mother was charged with three counts of child neglect this week after leaving her three children, ages 8, 2 and 2, in the car for nearly 30 minutes while she was inside Rock Hill Galleria. At least three shoppers saw the unattended children crying in the car and called 911.

“It could have been catastrophic,” said Assistant Chief Robert White of Piedmont EMS.

Between 1998 and 2014, more than 600 children died after being left in hot cars, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. So far in 2016, nine children have died in hot cars nationwide.

White, who co-chairs Safe Kids York County, said parents and caregivers need to realize how quickly temperatures inside a car can turn deadly, especially during the summer.

“If it’s 80 degrees outside, within 10 minutes it’s going to be 20 degrees higher inside that car,” he said, adding that children’s bodies don’t have the same defensive reactions to heat that adult bodies do. “When (body temperature) gets to 104 degrees, it can become catastrophic. At 107 degrees, your systems will begin shutting down.”

During a demonstration Friday, White used a thermometer that measures temperature outside and inside a vehicle. After 20 minutes in the sun, the outside temperature measured 100 degrees, and inside White’s truck measured 147 degrees.

Friday’s high temperature in Rock Hill reached 89 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The temperature in Rock Hill on Monday when the kids were discovered in the car was about 85 degrees.

Even if heat stroke doesn’t kill a child, White said, they can suffer lifelong injuries including paralysis and kidney damage.

Some deaths have been caused after parents and caregivers forgot a child was in the backseat and left the cars unattended for hours. To avoid forgetting a child is in the back, White said it’s a good idea to put an item like a stuffed animal in the front seat to remember the child is in the back, or to leave a necessary item like a cellphone or purse in the back seat with the child.

Capt. Brent Allmon of the Rock Hill Police Department said the dangers of leaving children unattended in vehicles go beyond heat stroke. The child could be abducted, the car being stolen with the child inside or the child could get out of the car and get hit by traffic or lost.

Many people leave younger children in the car with an older child, but Allmon said if the older child isn’t of driving age, it’s illegal.

“Some people think, ‘I left the car running,’” he said. “Leaving a running vehicle unattended is illegal.”

Leaving children unattended in an idling vehicle can also be dangerous if the child, whether intentionally or accidentally, puts the vehicle in gear, Allmon said.

Anyone who sees a child unattended in a car should call 911 immediately. Allmon said it’s important to stay on the line because dispatch will ask the caller questions to determine what level of danger the child is in.

“Standby, stay on the phone with 911 until law enforcement arrives,” he said. “If an adult wants to get in the vehicle and leave, unless the child seems to be in some kind of medical distress, get the tag number and let law enforcement stop them and investigate the welfare of the child.”

Gov. Nikki Haley in February signed a bill into law that protects people from civil liability if they cause damage to a vehicle while removing a child or vulnerable adult. The law states the person must have “a reasonable good faith belief” that forced entry is necessary “because the minor or vulnerable adult is in imminent danger of suffering harm.”

Allmon said even with so-called “good Samaritan laws,” breaking a window shouldn’t be a first resort to extricate a child from a hot car.

“Unless you know the child is in medical distress, going up and just breaking somebody’s window is going to make you liable at that point,” he said. “If law enforcement gets there and determines what they’ve done doesn’t meet the threshold of unlawful conduct, then the person is liable for breaking the window.”

The law does not protect someone who damages a car trying to remove an animal.

Allmon said it comes down to common sense when deciding how to act if you find a child unattended in a car. More so, he said, it boils down to common sense by parents to not leave children alone in cars to begin with.

“When you leave your child in an unattended vehicle, you’re kind of gambling,” he said. “It’s almost like you’re hoping nothing’s going to happen to the child.”

This story was originally published June 5, 2016 at 8:44 AM with the headline "Emergency responders warn of dangers of leaving kids alone in cars."