‘We can avoid having those fatal mistakes’: Hot Nebraska days pose deadly threat to kids

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Temperatures on Monday were some of the hottest we’ve seen so far this year.

Under these conditions, it doesn’t take much for a everyday situation to turn deadly, especially when talking about children forgotten or trapped inside a vehicle.

Heat-related illnesses like heat exhaustion and heatstroke become more of a reality, as one father experienced on Monday.

“My daughter is in a camp, and she just had heat exhaustion today,” John Lefler Jr. said.

Lefler is the executive director of the Nebraska Safety Council and has seen the effects of heat firsthand.

On average across the nation, 38 children die each year due to heatstroke after being left in the car, according to San Jose State University.

“Sometimes we think something will take us only a few minutes, and then we might lose track of time because of variables we weren’t expecting,” Lefler said. “Even on a day like today, where it’s like 97 degrees, within just a few minutes, now it’s 105 in that car.”

Cars act like a greenhouse, heating trapped air as much as 50 degrees over what outside temperatures are.

All it takes is 10 minutes for temperatures to jump 20 degrees inside a car.

“With kids, they’re body temperature will go up three to five times faster than an adult, so it is very extreme,” Lefler said. “It can go from heat exhaustion to heatstroke to something fatal very, very quickly.”

Infants can’t regulate their body temperature as well as an adult.

And children do not sweat as much as adults, making it harder to cool down their bodies.

“One of the big misconceptions is that having the windows down will help, when that actually has little or no effect at all,” Lefler said.

Many think this will never happen to them, but oftentimes, child heatstroke deaths resulted from stress, distraction or a caregiver’s change in routine.

Parents and caregivers can be busy in the morning, hustling while trying to get to work, Lefler said.

He recommended putting an essential item in your back seat as reminder that your child is back there, too.

Eight children in 2023 have died due to heatstroke so far, but all hot car deaths are preventable, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“It happens,” Lefler said. “It’s unfortunate when it happens, but if we can avoid having those fatal mistakes, those fatal outcomes, I think that any idea … is going to be helpful.”

Temperatures are expected to hang in the 9os for quite some time heading into July.

Experts say the bottom line is: Look before you lock.