Child Safety Reasons why Children should never be Left alone in Cars
Children should never be left in a car alone, not even for five minutes. Leaving a child alone in a car can be the signing of a child’s death certificate. This may sound harsh, but the high death toll relating to children left in a car alone is heartbreaking reality. Children are left alone in cars far too often, by parents, family members, friends and caregivers. Cars are not child care centres or playhouses, they are metal death traps designed for transportation and nothing more.
Leaving children in cars during the summer months can have the child die of heat exhaustion, dehydration or prolonged exposure to heat. It doesn’t matter if the car windows are up or down, the temperature inside the vehicle can rise to over 100 degrees very quickly. And while the temperature increases and the child begins to suffer all the discomforts of death by dehydration, the parent is often having the time of their lives. Yes, while the parent is having coffee with friends thinking little Johnny will be ok for half an hour, the poor little mite is suffering 3rd degree burns from the metal and plastic parts of his car seat belt.
When a child is left in a car lone during the winter months, he or she is facing the risk of death by hypothermia and/or frostbite. With no heat the child is now exposed to extreme cold temperatures which lowers the child’s body temperature rapidly. This can cause hypothermia. The child is now at risk of getting frost bite to the ears, nose, fingers and toes etc. This is a horrible experience for anyone, let alone a child!
Leaving a child to his/her own devices in a car, is just as bad as placing a loaded gun in a child’s hand. Children are inquisitive little beings and it doesn’t take much strength to disengage a hand brake, gear stick etc. If the keys are left in the ignition the car can be started, the gears can be changed and the car can roll into traffic, hit innocent pedestrians or other cars. Ain actual fact if the child is old enough to undo his/her seat belt, the child could decide to leave the vehicle and try to find the person who left him/her in the vehicle. The child then runs the risk of getting lost, kidnapped, molested, hit by a car or murdered.
A good number of people have been arrested for briefly leaving children in cars alone. This has sparked a great deal of global controversy which has myriad of people asking if parents/caregivers should be prosecuted for leaving children in cars alone irrespective of the fact that it could be just momentarily. The other question many ask is: “What is does unattended really mean?
The general public has heard all the excuses. “I just nipped into the shops for some bread and milk!” But this does not excuse the fact that the unattended child/children could be stolen along with the unattended vehicle. A host of parents argue that unattended does not include a child in a car less than ten feet away from them and within sight. But statistics show that accidents have happened while parents have just stepped out of the vehicle to talk to friends.
Another thing many people tend to forget is that fact that child can be very afraid of being left alone. The stress factor alone should have parents thinking twice about leaving their children alone in cars. Cars and seatbelts were never manufactured for restraining children indefinitely. Therefore they were never invented nor intended to act as miniature prison cells. They should never be used as a babysitting device.
A host of parents have had to call a locksmith after they have left their child/children to their own devices in a car. Can you imagine the horror a parent experiences seeing their child dying of heat exhaustion while a locksmith frantically tries to open a locked car door? Children get bored and start playing with the door locks and before you know it, carbon monoxide is slowly poisoning them. The child could decided to rummage through the glove-box for something to eat or drink and end up swallowing something toxic. Children have even been known to get tangled in the seat belt and accidentally hung themselves.
The law varies from state to state, and in some states it is permissible to leave the child in the car if the carer/parent is no more than ten feet away from the child for no longer than ten minutes. But the author still sees that as a risk to the child. The simple truth is that it is against the law to leave a child alone in a car no matter what the reason is. A parent/caregiver of a child is fully responsible for the child’s safety. If found out you can be charged with negligence, manslaughter or murder if a child dies because it was left in a car alone.
Never ever leave your child alone and unattended in a car, you could end up regretting it for the rest of your life.
