BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – As the temperature outside becomes warmer, leaving a child unattended in a car can become dangerous.

“When it’s 70 degrees outside, it can get as high as 114 degrees in your car,” said Barren River District Health Department HANDS Program Manger, Callie Shaw.

Shaw said often parents think it’s never going to happen to them, but over half of the hot car deaths that occur do because they forget there is a child there.

“It can be simple things like, maybe you’re not the person usually responsible for that child, or you have multiple kids, young babies, and children attending to, so it can be little stuff that makes you forget,” she said.

To prevent that from happening, there are several things you can do to make sure you don’t leave your child behind.

“Having something in your passenger seat, like a baby bag, or a stuffed animal or something like that will just jog your memory when you’re getting out of the car,” Shaw said.

Other things you can do include placing a purse or wallet in the backseat, developing a habit of checking, and educating your kids on car safety.

“Even maybe having someone you call when you leave or someone who can call you and be like, ‘Hey, did you like get from point A to point B?’” Shaw said. “Having little reminders like that can make a huge difference.”

She also added that cracking a window or parking in the shade doesn’t affect how fast a car heats up.

“We think that that makes a difference, it really doesn’t do a lot to reduce the temperature in the car,” Shaw said.

If you happen to be passing by a vehicle this summer and see a child in it, with no one around, you should call 911.

“The child’s safety is the top priority,” Shaw said. “Part of that is because a child’s body temperature is going to rise a lot quicker than in adults. So their body temperature will rise three to five times faster than an adult’s will. So they’re going to be likely more susceptible to heatstroke.”

In a child, heatstroke can happen once their body reaches 104 degrees and death can occur once it reaches 107 degrees.

“That happens quickly. It can happen within 10 to 15 minutes that their body gets to that temperature. So it’s really important that if you do see a child in a car you are acting quickly,” Shaw said.

For more information and tips, visit healthychildren.org or nhtsa.gov.

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