INDIANAPOLIS-- The year 2018 is on track to be one of the deadliest years for child hot car deaths, according to the advocacy group KidsAndCars.org.
So far this year 29 children have died from heatstroke inside vehicles, including two in Indiana.
Three-year-old Hannah Grace Miller died in Madison Countyfrom complications of overheating after she was left inside a vehicle for about two hours before she was discovered.
Another child, athree-month-old boy, died after he was left in a hot car parked outside his mother’s workplace in southern Indiana.
Tuesday is National Heatstroke Prevention Day, and child advocate are using the day to bring awareness to the preventable tragedies of children and animals dying in hot cars.
"No one thinks a hot car tragedy can happen to them or their family and that is why these tragedies continue to happen," stated Janette Fennell, founder and president of KidsAndCars.org, the leading national nonprofit child safety organization working solely to prevent injuries and deaths of children in and around motor vehicles.
KidsAndCars.org and their safety partners are posting facts and safety tipsthroughout the day about how child vehicular heatstroke can be prevented.
What should you do if you see a child in a hot car? According to Indiana law, you would be immune from civil liability if you break into a car to rescue a child under a few circumstances:
- The vehicle must be locked or there is no other way to get the child than to break in
- You must have a "good faith belief" that breaking into the vehicle is necessary and the child is in danger of being harmed if you don't
- You have to call emergency services before you break in, if possible. If that isn't possible, you have to call immediately after
- You can't use "more force than necessary" to break into the vehicle
- You have to stay with the child until a law enforcement officer arrives
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