With hotter temperatures forecast in Mississippi this week, the State Health Department is urging parents and grandparents to take precautions to avoid a tragedy which happens about twice a week across the country during the summer. A child who dies after being left inside a hot car. In Mississippi, 24 children have died of heat stroke since 1990, most of them after being forgotten in the backseat of a car. Three of those deaths were since 2023. Jillian Harper is the program director of the State Health Department’s Healthy Moms/Healthy Babies program.
“Vehicles can heat up by approximately 20 degrees in just ten minutes,” she says. “A child’s body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult, so when a child is left in a vehicle, the child’s temperature can rise quickly.”
Harper says there are lots of ways to help a driver remember that there’s a child in the backseat.
“Putting a purse, a briefcase, an employee bag or one shoe in the backseat, something essential that you’re going to remember. Also, in the front seat you can put a diaper bag or stuffed animal, something that will remind you of the child being back there.”
The Health Department says parents can ask a daycare to make a quick call if their child doesn’t arrive on time. And there’s technology available to help guard against hot car deaths.
Sometimes, though, a tragedy can occur even if the car never leaves home. A child is able to get inside the car but can’t get out.
Harper says, “Always lock your car when no one is in there. Never leave your keys available for a child to get them.”
And if a child is missing, it’s a good idea to check the trunk of a car in case they’ve gotten locked inside.
In Mississippi, 13 of our hot car deaths have involved victims who were unknowingly left in the car and five were youngsters who gained access to the vehicle and couldn’t get out. And four victims were deliberately left in a car.
