The number of children dying inside hot cars declined during the pandemic, but as parents resume commutes and things otherwise return to a new normal, they can easily surge again, experts caution.
“There is significant concern that this is going to go back to pre-pandemic numbers this year, as everyone returns to more normal life in the context of the pandemic,” said Dr. Manessha Agarwal, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Emergency Department physician.
Agarwal said the most common reason children die in hot cars is because parents forget they are in the back seat. More than 900 children have died in hot cars since 1998, when tracking of such incidents began, according to Golden Gate Weather Services, a private meteorology firm in California.
More than half of the deaths, 53%, between 1998 and 2021 happened when children were forgotten inside vehicles, according to Golden Gate Weather Services. The year 2021 saw 23 such deaths, the lowest since 1998; 2020 saw 25.
“If you look at the data, the numbers were increasing up to the pandemic. 2020 was one of the lowest years on record for children dying in hot cars; last year was similar as well,” Agarwal said. “The thought is that since there has been a drastic change in society and a lot of children are staying at home, parents working from home, there was less opportunities for children to be left in hot cars.”
In Georgia, there had been no hot car deaths since three children died in 2019. This year, there have been three such deaths nationwide, including one in Georgia.
Since 1998, Georgia, along with North Carolina and Louisiana, are among the top five states with the highest number of children deaths in hot cars with 35. Texas saw 134, Florida followed with 99, California had 55 and Arizona had 43. On average, 38 children die while trapped in hot vehicles every year, according to Golden Gate Weather Services.
In Gwinnett County this year, Davied Japez McCorry Whatley, 20, was charged with second-degree murder after authorities say he left his 8-month-old daughter in a car for hours without telling anybody. Whatley had stopped at the Snellville Police Department to pick up a gun that was being held in police custody around 2:15 p.m. on May 3, leaving his daughter, Nova Grace Whatley-Trejo, in his 2007 Mazda 3 in the parking lot of Snellville City Hall.
It was not until after 9 p.m. that the girl was taken to the emergency room by her grandmother. The child had already died. Whatley is being held at the Gwinnett County jail without bond.
In Cobb County, Geetha Lakshmi Dhananjayan and Jayachandran Pallavarajan were charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct after authorities said they left their two children, ages 9 and 3, inside their Nissan Altima for at least 20 minutes while they went inside a grocery store. According to an arrest report, the temperature inside the locked vehicle rose above 120 degrees.
The temperature outside at the time was 82 degrees.
Marietta Police Public Information Officer Chuck McPhilamy said parents need to make sure not to leave children or pets in parked vehicles unless an adult is in the vehicle with them and the AC is running. McPhilamy said people should say something if they see something suspicious like a child inside a hot vehicle.
McPhilamy said people should break a car window only in extreme cases. If necessary to do so, it’s important to get someone to record your actions and the interior of the vehicle to have documentation.
Agarwal noted children can also die in hot cars even during winter months, but it’s more common during warm weather.
“The amount of time it takes for a child to suffer heat stroke after being left in a car depends on how hot it is outside, as well as how long a child is in the car,” Agarwal said. “In certain situations, this can happen within a matter of 10 minutes.”
Signs of significant injury and illness begin when a child’s internal body temperature reaches 104 degrees. If a child’s internal temperature reaches 107 degrees, they can die. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a child’s body heats up three to five times faster than an adult’s. In 10 minutes, a car temperature can go up 19 degrees.
“It is very heartbreaking,” Agarwal said. “Every single child has so much potential ahead of them. To have a child die because a parent just forgot or because a parent didn’t know any better, it is just devastating.”
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