Heat Dangers!

More children have died this year after being left in hot cars than in the last several years. Although most of us will dismiss this news with "I would never do this to my child" many of the parents who have suffered this way did not do it deliberately. Sure, there are reports of children being left in cars while a parent is somewhere shopping or drinking in a bar, but most of these cases are parents who for one reason or another have a child in their car outside of a normal routine.

Many parents are overworked and lack adequate sleep. Take an overtired parent, a different routine and new child safety seats which face backwards so the child cannot be seen by the parent in the front seat and you have a potential recipe for disaster.

What can parents do to avoid this tragedy? There is no one specific answer, but some suggestions are:

- Put a note on your dashboard when a child is in the back seat, if carrying a child there is not a normal part of your routine.

- If you carry a briefcase or a bag, for example a working parent on their way to work, put the bag in the back seat on the floor behind the driver's seat. Put it well out of your reach so you need to open the back door or at least turn and look into the back seat as a reminder your child is there.

- Simply make it a habit to look into the back seat carefully to insure there is no one there, and audibly state "I am looking in the back seat". Pilots will read aloud checklists for that reason, you are less likely to believe you saw or read something simply from memory. The act of speaking a reminder to yourself out loud uses a different part of the brain and may keep you from believing you already looked and did not.

- Keep in mind that in temperatures above the 90's in the direct sun, a car interior with the windows closed can reach dangerous conditions in as little as 15 minutes. Never leave a child in the car even for a moment in hot weather. Never leave your car running with the child inside. The car could stall, or worse some cars will lock the doors after a few minutes and if you do not have another key you will not be able to get back in.

Do whatever you need to do to get your brain off of automatic and check for your children. We all have gone into automatic in our lives, but this is one time not to rely on what you believe you saw or did.

Stay safe!