Warning To Parents As Eight Children Die In Overheated Cars

Warning To Parents As Eight Children Die In Overheated Cars

As temperatures begin to climb British parents have been warned about the dangers of leaving their children in hot cars following several tragedies in the United States.

In the last month, eight children have died after being left or trapped in cars in several locations across America.

Child safety campaigners there are concerned that there will be more tragedies as summer progresses. All the cases involved babies and toddlers.

The latest death was Hezekiah Brooks, aged two, who went missing on Sunday after he apparently crawled into his grandfather's car in Florida. He was found dead four hours later on the floorboards of the car.

However, in most of the cases, the parents accidentally leave the children inside while they are distracted.

"It has everything to do with our brains letting us down at the worst possible moment," Janette Fennell, the president of Kids and Cars advocacy group, told NBC News.

That seems to be the case for Vibha Marks, 42, of Milch Springs, Texas who told police that she had no idea her daughter Victoria was inside the vehicle when she parked outside her school, and 'was certain' that she had taken her to daycare.

Ms Marks was charged with second-degree felony child abandonment - just 24 hours after her daughter had celebrated her first birthday.

Bryan Osceola, an 11-month old boy, died when his mother Catalina Bruno left him in his car seat when she went into their Florida home. When the baby's father Amos Osceola asked where the child was, they found him unresponsive in the car seat.

The couple rushed him to a fire station and then a hospital but he died, as his body temperature was 109 degrees. Bruno was charged with aggravated manslaughter.

Part of the danger is the fact that a door without the windows wound down acts as a greenhouse, and it takes only 10 minutes for the temperature in the car to raise by 20 degrees. In a half hour, the temperature would have risen by 34 degrees.

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