Vehicle Safety – Don’t ever leave children alone in a car

Despite the amount of information available to say how dangerous it is, children are still being left unattended in motor vehicles. For whatever reason, and no matter how short a time a child is left, leaving a child in a parked car is illegal.

During 2007/2008 the NRMA rescued 1890 children from locked vehicles, around five children every day. These statistics are alarming and whilst most were accidently locked in cars by parents, siblings or through their own interference with the car locking system, there were occasions when parents left the child unattended for other reasons.

Whilst it might seem difficult and time consuming to get a young child in and out of the car every time, especially for a quick dash into the shop, there is no acceptable excuse for leaving a child unattended in a locked car. Even leaving the windows down a few centimetres will not help. The temperature in the car will still rise to dangerous levels.

On a typical summer day the temperature inside a parked car can be 30 to 40 degrees hotter than the outside air temperature. So on a 30 plus degree day, the temperature inside a locked car can reach 70 degrees, with about 75 per cent of interior temperature rises occurring within five minutes of closing the car doors. Dehydration, heat stress, heat stroke and even death are the possible results with the heat in the car being three times more likely to kill a child than an adult.

If you should accidently lock your baby or child in the car the NRMA will drop all calls and respond immediately even if you are not a member because of the grave dangers involved.  If you notice a distressed child in a locked car immediately notify the emergency services by dialling 000.

Leaving an unattended child in a locked car can result in the person responsible being fined up to $22,000 under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.” 

source    NRMA