KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Temperatures are rising and so are reports of infants and toddlers dying from being trapped inside sizzling automobiles.
A researcher says 18 children have died of hyperthermia since the beginning of the year, with eight deaths reported since June 13. That’s the largest number of fatalities through the first half of a year since Jan Null, an adjunct professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University, began tracking the data in the late 1990s.
Government and safety experts are telling parents that they never should leave children in an unattended vehicle or allow kids to play in cars and trucks. Many of the recent cases have involved children who climbed inside an unlocked vehicle on a hot day and then couldn’t get out.