AAA warns of hot car dangers

Robert Sinclair from AAA discusses the increase in hot car danger with children.

Transcript

00:00we appreciate you being here as we continue to cover this story yeah it's a horrific and tragic

00:05story we report on that happens uh too often children left in hot cars triple a is also

00:13warning about the deadly danger joining us now is robert st clair senior manager of public affairs

00:19for triple a in the northeast robert triple day calls this a growing danger why did we see such

00:26a sharp rise in hot car deaths last year yeah we saw an increase from a 35 from 29 the year before

00:34to 39 last year why it's happening it could have something to do with the fact that we're driving

00:39more gasoline prices are cheaper so we're on the road more usually these things happen when there's

00:45some change in the routine and as life gets more complicated we change the routine perhaps the

00:50father is used to taking the child to the to child care and not the mother and then there's a switch

00:55and they forget and we've got a lot of things on our minds and that can play into it and perhaps

01:00the hot weather is playing into it uh are we getting a lot more hot weather i think you guys can answer

01:06that question better than i but it is increasing unfortunately now many people think this only

01:12happens on scorching days but it doesn't need to be very hot for a car to be deadly what do families

01:18need to know about temperatures inside cars yeah these things usually happen when the temperature

01:25is in excess of 80 degrees fahrenheit but over the past 20 years in crunching the data i found that

01:32three children died when the temperature was in the 50s and tragically in 2012 in november in mesa city

01:39colorado two children a two-year-old and a four-year-old died in an overheated car when the outside air

01:44temperature was only 35 degrees fahrenheit so drivers need to realize that cars are essentially

01:51rolling greenhouses vehicles are rolling greenhouses they have lots of glass they're well sealed from

01:57the outside so the ultraviolet rays get inside heat up the interior of the vehicle and the heat has no

02:03way to escape and a vehicle can go from whatever the climate control temperature was inside the vehicle

02:09to over 109 degrees in just 10 minutes and sitting in the hot sun i keep a thermometer in my vehicle and

02:16earlier this year i recorded a temperature of 164 degrees i saw a cooking show and they said for

02:23grilling meat the temperature should be from 130 to 150 so that temperature in my vehicle is actually

02:28hotter than is recommended for cooking meat so drivers have to realize parents have to realize

02:33caregivers have to realize that vehicles can get very very hot very very quickly

02:38so what are some simple habits drivers can take to avoid these disasters

02:43stop and look the old phrase uh before getting out of the vehicle or when getting out of the vehicle

02:49make sure you check the back seat one way of ensuring that you don't forget any children that

02:54are left there is to leave a personal item in the back seat with the child a purse a cell phone

02:59something like that um also you want to make sure that your vehicle is kept locked we've seen child

03:04deaths in vehicles when they accidentally gained entry to an unlocked vehicle and then could not

03:11get out so that's very important making sure the vehicle is locked when you exit it and if you do see

03:17a child in a vehicle on a day and they're not moving call 9-1-1 uh don't wait call 9-1-1 very quickly

03:24so the authorities can come and help and all of these tips apply to animals as well don't want to

03:32leave the puppies or the cats in the cars to protect the children protect the puppies make sure you check

03:37your vehicle before you leave it and if you see one in a vehicle call 9-1-1 it can happen very very

03:44quickly that we have a tragedy robertson claire senior manager of public affairs for the triple

03:49a in the northeast always good to talk about you a very very upsetting topic but again ways to combat

03:57this and hopefully prevent any more deaths robert thanks for talking to us sir thanks very much for

04:03having me and getting this information out there it's very important