Many people react with disbelief at the notion of a parent leaving their child in a hot car .
While deaths associated with this are significantly higher in the US than in Europe, each summer the emergency services in the UK are forced to issue warnings nonetheless.
According to Omni Calculator , many experiments have shown that even on a cooler summer day, temperatures inside a closed vehicle can quickly exceed 52°C.
Children are incredibly susceptible to the heat, and measures like parking in the shade and leaving a window open aren’t necessarily going to prevent tragedy from happening.
To illustrate just how vulnerable kids are, Omni Calculator has a breakdown of what happens – and how quickly – if you leave your child in a hot car.
At 19°C in a light car with a few clouds in the sky
(Image: Getty Images)
Within 60 minutes (body temp at 38°C) – hypothermia, sweating and thirst set in. The child is very uncomfortable.
At 90 minutes (body temp at 39°C) – the child experiences severe sweating, flushed and increased heart rate.
Children with epilepsy may begin convulsing.
150 minutes, with a body temperature of 40°C, fainting, dehydration, weakness, vomiting, breathlessness all occur and are life-threatening .
In a dark car, things move even faster.
Hypothermia, sweating and thirst may set in within 45 minutes.
By 65 minutes the child is profusely sweating, flushed and with an increased heart rate.
(Image: Getty Images)
At the 95 minute mark, their body temperature at 40°C – fainting, dehydration, weakness, vomiting, breathlessness all occur and are life-threatening .
170 minutes (body temp at 41°C) – severe headache, dizziness, confusion, hallucinations and delirium. It’s now a medical emergency.
At 24°C in a light car with a few clouds in the sky.
Within 40 minutes your child will be sweating, thirsty and at risk of hypothermia. In a dark car, this can happen in just 35 minutes.
By 60 minutes they’re sweating severely, flushed, their heart rate has increased rapidly and children with epilepsy may be convulsing. Again, if you’re car is darker, this occurs at the 50 minute mark.
(Image: Getty Images/Image Source)
At 90 minutes (80 in a darker car) the consequences are life-threatening and include fainting, dehydration, weakness, vomiting, and breathlessness.
160 minutes (125 in a darker car) and you have a medical emergency on your hands, with your child suffering from severe headache, dizziness, confusion, hallucinations and delirium.
And the time frames just get smaller the higher the temperature.
Omni Calculator points out that sunshades and windows tinting may slightly slow the rate of temperature rise, but final interior temperatures remain almost the same.
Leaving the partly open windows may reduce the temperature in a car but b4 aware that the last point doesn’t mean it is safe to leave a living thing inside a parked vehicle. The rate of increase in the cabins temperature reduced, but it is still quite rapid.
