17 Kids Have Died In Hot Cars Already This Year

MICHIGAN — Some 17 children have died this year after being left alone in hot cars. That’s according to KidsandCars.org. The youngest kids to die were three to four-month old babies and the older children ranged to four years old.

According to the group, a record number of 52 children died in hot cars in 2018, and more than 900 children have died in hot cars since 1990.

The advocacy group applauded Reps. Tim Ryan (D-OH), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Peter King (R-NY) for introducing "the Hot Cars Act (H.R. 3593), which will prevent tragic heatstroke deaths by ensuring all new cars are equipped with a system that detects and alerts to the presence of a child unknowingly left in a vehicle," WXYZ reported.

In 2017, 42 kids died in hot cars. A report last year by the National Safety Council shows that Michigan does not do enough to protect kids. It assigned letter grades to states and gave Michigan a C grade for failing to implement policy changes that could help reduce the number of hot car deaths. Michigan ranked No. 30 nationally.

Michigan also does not offer the common Good Samaritan law offering protection to people who might rescue kids from hot cars.

When the outside temperature is around 86 degrees, interior temperatures can go up at least 19 degrees in as few as 10 minutes, according to a 2005 study that looked at the “greenhouse effect” the sun can have in vehicles.

Hot car deaths average 37 per year.