It doesn't take the triple-digit temperatures that gripped the southwestern desert last week to bring on a case of vehicular heatstroke. A person sitting inside a car can suffer effects and potentially die from the malady when the outside temperature is as low as 60, even on cloudy days.
Every 10 days, vehicular heatstroke kills a child in the United States, an average of 38 annually. Already 15 children have died this year while trapped in a vehicle, according to National Child Passenger Safety Board, a program managed by the National Safety Council.
The elderly and pets are vulnerable, too, when the temperature inside a vehicle soars.
Heatstroke occurs when the body is unable to control its temperature. At 104 degrees, the sweating mechanism fails, and the body is unable to cool down. Symptoms include dizziness, disorientation, agitation, confusion, sluggishness, seizure, loss of consciousness and hallucinations, says Jan Null, of the Department of Meteorology and Climate Services at San Jose State University, who has tracked child deaths related to vehicular heatstroke since 1998 and provides her findings on the website www.noheatstroke.org.
"When a core body temperature of 107 degrees or greater is reached, cells are damaged and internal organs begin to shut down. This cascade of events can rapidly lead to death," she says
That doesn't take long. In just 10 minutes, a car's temperature can rise more than 20 degrees. Even at an outside temperature of 60 degrees, the temperature inside a car can reach 110 degrees, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said. That's stifling for anybody, but more so for children whose bodies warm at a rate 3 to 5 times faster than an adult's.
In simple terms, here's how that happens. The sun's shortwave radiation strikes the steering wheel, dashboard and the seats. Those objects give off long-wave radiation that is unable to get out of the car, thus warming the air inside to as high as 180 to 200 degrees. It doesn't take long for a person in a vehicle to drift into the danger zone.
Minnesota not immune
Vehicular heatstroke is most prevalent in southern and western states where summers are longer and the heat is more intense. But Minnesota is not immune. There have been five deaths since 1998, according to Null's count.
Earlier this month, NHTSA held a one-day Twitter campaign, sending a message every 15 minutes for 24 hours, trying to raise awareness about the dangers of vehicular heatstroke.
Since 1998, the most common cause of vehicular heatstroke — 54 percent (356 kids) — was from a parent or guardian "forgetting" a child was still in the car. In 29 percent of the cases (189), children crawled into an unlocked vehicle and could not get out. Another 17 percent were from a caregiver intentionally leaving a child in a hot car and the circumstances were unknown 1 percent of the time, Null's research showed.
Only 20 states have laws specifically addressing leaving a child unattended in a vehicle. Minnesota is not one of them. Laws or not, if you see something, say something, experts say.
Here are a few reminders to avert tragedy. Always check the back seat before you lock it and walk away. Keep a stuffed animal in your child's car seat when it's empty, and move it to the front seat as a visual reminder when your child is in the back seat. If someone else is driving your child, or your daily routine has been altered, check to make sure your child has arrived safely.
Follow news about traffic and commuting at The Drive on startribune.com. Got traffic or transportation questions, or story ideas? E-mail drive@startribune.com, tweet@stribdrive or call Tim Harlow at 612-673-7768.
