By Gwen Sheldon
In 2025, 31 children died of heatstroke in vehicles in the United States, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Vehicle safety technologies can help mitigate these tragedies — but only if they are used as intended, said Laurel Glenn, a research associate at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
“Technology can help, alongside behavioral countermeasures,” Glenn said. “We need to have systems in place to protect us from ourselves.”
The United States only tracks hot car incidents that result in fatalities. By comparison, data from Australia indicates that over 5,000 children are rescued after being left unattended in a car every year.
“People say, ‘It won’t happen to me,’” said Glenn. “It does happen. It ends in the death of a child or in the injury of a child, and it is heartbreaking.”
Glenn provided critical information for guardians about how mindset, behavioral changes, and appropriate use of vehicle safety systems and other technologies can help prevent vehicular heatstroke.
What situations most commonly lead to pediatric vehicular heatstroke?
Data over a 28-year period indicates that unintentionally forgetting a child in a car is the top causal circumstance of heatstroke fatalities — 53 percent. Distractions or changes in routine can increase the risk of a caregiver unintentionally leaving a child in the back seat.
The other two leading circumstances contributing to fatalities involve children gaining unsupervised access to a vehicle and caregivers knowingly leaving children unattended in a car.
What vehicle features are available to help prevent child heatstroke?
In-vehicle and aftermarket technologies utilize varying methods to both detect and alert drivers to the potential presence of a child or other vulnerable person in the rear seat.
There’s something called rear door logic, and that is based upon the opening of a rear door. There are some that are based upon movement in a vehicle. Then there are ones that are aftermarket that are related to things such as the buckling of a child in a car seat, or weight in a rear seat.
Similarly, methods of alerting drivers to a potential backseat passenger can range from subtle visual cues to audible alerts and even text messages. While useful, these systems are not bulletproof. For instance, multi-step detection algorithms can fail to trigger an alert if a specific sequence of events doesn’t meet the criteria.
How can guardians best utilize available vehicle technology?
Read the manual. I always say to start there. Know the different layers of the system, because sometimes it’s going to start with just door logic. And sometimes door logic is the first pass through, and then there are other levels beyond that.
Test features in real-world circumstances. Verify when alerts trigger and when they do not. You really need to understand how it works, so you can also understand how it does not work.
What can parents or guardians do to reduce the risk of vehicular heatstroke?
Acknowledge the possibility of human error. You are not infallible. No one is infallible. I think that understanding that we make mistakes is how we are going to stop this. In terms of public health education, if you don’t have that buy-in of acceptability and knowledge of the problem, you’re not going to change any of your behaviors.
Establish accountability routines. Set up active check-ins with partners or care providers. For example, a quick text with your partner every day asking, “How was drop-off?” can help keep everyone accountable. Make sure that if you’re dropping off your child at a center, that they have a system in place to contact you if your child is late.
Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle. Even moderate ambient temperatures can quickly lead to a temperature spike in the interior of a vehicle. Outdoor temperatures as low as 70 degrees Fahrenheit can cause a vehicle cabin to reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit within an hour. Fatalities have occurred in outside temperatures as low as the 60s.
Prevent access to parked vehicles. Keep your car locked and keep the keys out of reach. Because at this point, kids just have to push a button, and they can get the door open.
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