MIAMI – Cars get hot in Florida year-round, but summer brings the highest temperatures.
That’s why health experts and law enforcement are reminding people not to leave kids, pets, or anyone elderly in cars alone.
“Sadly, we expect them to happen to happen around summertime, we’ve had patients with a 107, 108 degree Fahrenheit,” Dr. Edmara Nieves, Broward Health Assistant Medical Director of the Emergency Department said.
According to the National Safety Council, so far in 2022, 10 children have died in hot cars.
On average 38 children under the age of 15 die each year from heatstroke after being left in a vehicle.
Now with temperatures feeling hotter than 100 degrees, Dr. Nieves is warning everyone how easily kids can overheat in hot weather.
“They go into a state of confusion, altered mental status, sometimes they pass out, sometimes they arrive just comatose,” she explained.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office has a special gauge to compare the temperature outside and inside of a car.
Wednesday it was at the Fire Station 21 in Weston.
“On an average mild day, 80 degrees or so a car temperature can heat up 20 degrees in as little as 10 minutes,” Melanie Brocato, Life Safety Educator said.
The chart next to the gauge broke down the temperatures, at 70 degrees, in 10 minutes the car can get to 89, in 30 minutes it’s 104.
While at 80 degrees, in 10, cars can heat up to 99 degrees, and another half hour it’s 114 degrees.
Heatstroke begins s at 104 degrees, at 107 the body can suffer organ failure and irreversible damage.
And this is why BSO wants people to remember the acronym LOVE, which stands for, leave our vehicles empty.
“A good reminder for parents and caregivers is to make sure their unattended vehicles are locked at all times that will prevent children from getting there, to begin with,” Brocato added.
Another good habit is making sure to keep phones or purses/ wallets in the back as a reminder to look in the back seat.
