It’s never safe to leave a child unattended in a vehicle. Even with the windows cracked or the vehicle parked in the shade, the car’s interior temperatures can reach dangerous levels in a short period of time.
And don’t be fooled by the thermometer: On days with mild temperatures, the heat inside a closed vehicle can reach dangerous levels within an hour, posing major health risks to small children or pets left inside, Consumer Reports says.
CR’s testing found that even when it was 61° F outside, the temperature inside a closed car reached more than 105° F in just 1 hour, an extremely dangerous and potentially fatal level for a child.
The CR test results help dispel the myth that hot car deaths or heatstroke happen only on blisteringly hot days in the dead of summer.
And the idea that your car’s color can significantly mitigate the heat inside the vehicle is also largely a myth, based on CR’s testing.
“Children should never be left unattended in a car for even a short period of time,” says Jennifer Stockburger, director of operations at CR’s Auto Test Center. “Even when it’s not that hot outside, our test results show how quickly temperatures inside the car escalate, regardless of whether your car is light or dark.”
And research shows that drivers shouldn’t rely on external shade to cool the cabin, either. Researchers at Arizona State University and the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine evaluated cabin air temperature and surface temperatures in identical vehicles placed in the shade and the sun. Their study estimates that even in a shaded vehicle, a 2-year-old child’s core temperature could reach a dangerous—and potentially deadly—104° F in a little less than 2 hours.
The danger from high temperatures is particularly acute for young children because their bodies heat up three to five times faster than adult bodies, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
That’s because young children, especially babies, lack the ability to efficiently regulate their body temperature. Children dehydrate more quickly than adults.
Many automakers have integrated detection-and-alert technology into vehicles to remind parents or guardians that they might be leaving a child or pet behind.
