Cars and kids in the heat

AS THE weather continues to swelter, Ambulance Victoria is pleading with people not to leave young children in cars.
Shortly before Christmas, paramedics were called to 11 cases in two days involving children locked in cars.
In at least four of the cases, parents left children in the car while they went shopping.
Ambulance paramedic team manager Dan Candy said leaving young children in a car was incredibly dangerous.
“Even on a cool day the inside of a car can heat up dramatically,” he said.
“Tests by Ambulance Victoria show on a 29 degree day the inside of a car heated up from 20 degrees to 44 degrees within 10 minutes. Ten minutes later the temperature in the car hit more than 60 degrees.”
Mr Candy said young children could not regulate their body temperature effectively.
“They can dehydrate quickly, which leads to fitting,” he said.
Ambulance Victoria was called to more than 500 cases of children locked in cars each year.
“The majority of those are an accident where parents have put their children in the car and put the car keys on the seat,” Mr Candy said. “The door then accidentally locked.”
Mr Candy advised people to leave the car keys in their pockets while they were packing their car.