Children, cars and heat are a potentially deadly combination. Between 1998 and 2006, more than 320 children – most of them age three and younger – died from heat stroke while trapped in a vehicle. In an effort to end these preventable deaths, General Motors and Safe Kids Worldwide are warning parents and caregivers: Never Leave Your Child Alone.
Most parents know the importance of buckling up their children on every ride, but nearly 10 percent of motor vehicle-related deaths are considered non-traffic-related. These include incidents that occur somewhere other than a on public highway, street or road – for example, when children are struck by vehicles in parking lots or driveways, or when they are left unattended in vehicles.
Research and an examination of real-world incidents reveal that more than a third of these children were accidentally left in a closed, parked vehicle by parents or caregivers, and another third were trapped while playing unattended in a vehicle. Sadly, one in five children who died were intentionally left in the vehicle by an adult.
Leaving a child in a vehicle for a “quick” errand is a huge mistake because a delay of just a few minutes on a warm day can lead to tragedy.
Heat is much more dangerous to children than it is to adults. When left in a hot vehicle, a young child’s core body temperature may increase three to five times faster than that of an adult. This condition, known as hyperthermia, can cause permanent injury or even death.
According to research conducted by San Francisco State University, even when temperatures are relatively cool outside – 70 degrees – the inside of a car can reach a temperature that can be dangerous to children in just minutes.
Safe Kids Worldwide and General Motors want to remind parents and caregivers about the dangers of allowing children to play in or around cars. Vehicles are not toys or baby-sitters, and children of any age should never be alone in or around them.

Parents and caregivers should:

• Teach children never to play in, on or around vehicles.
• Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle, not even for a minute or with the window slightly open.
• Always lock a vehicle’s doors and trunk – especially at home. Keep keys and remote entry devices out of children’s reach.
• Watch children closely around vehicles, particularly when loading and unloading. Ensure all children leave the vehicle when you reach your destination. Don’t overlook sleeping infants.
• Be especially careful if you’re dropping off infants or children at day care and it is not part of your normal routine.
• Place your purse, lunch bag or briefcase – something you always carry – on the floor of the back seat where your child is sitting. This simple act could help prevent you from forgetting a child.

Ok, how dumb do you have to be to forget your kid. I understand just leaving him/her in the car because you don't want them to go in with you, lol, but just forget? I agree that you should be charged as negligent. And if you can forget your kid, they probably shouldn't be with you.

This doesn't include WANTING to forget your kid, according to my parents, that is normal.

Hah.

I just do not understand how a parent could forget about a child in their car. We are talking about a live human being.

It is not the same as forgetting your cell phone in the console or something like that.

I will tell you the quickest way teach yourself to stop forgetting things in the car.

In my highschool days I had the worst problem with locking my keys in the car. I taught myself to run a quick inventory of the things I need out before I shut the door. If you do it everyday for a month, it will become an automatic habit.

These days when I get out my truck I run a quick list of items in my head. keys, cell phone, wallet, XM head unit, I then scan my interior for trash or anything else that needs to be removed. Once I do that, I lock my truck down tight and go about my business. The process takes less then five seconds.

I agree. I also don't understand how a parent could forget about their child being in the car. To me, the parent is either not sober, or just plain stupid. In either case, they aren't fit to be a parent.

I just want to slap these people. Do you guys remember the big case where the guy left his kid in the car while he went into the strip bar in the middle of the day?? Not to mention the fact that this is how kids get stolen..NEVER leave them in a car, even when it's not a million degrees outside. Cars get stolen all the time even at convenience stores where you just run in real quick.