Hot-car deaths are at their height for the year. How many children have died in Indiana?

Indianapolis Star

27-06-2025

With Central and Eastern states seeing temperatures well into the 90s, and high temperatures and humidity intensifying come dangerous health risks for children.
Each year, heatstroke claims the lives of nearly 40 children in cars, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
According to KidsandCars.org, at least 1,132 children have died from heatstroke over the last 35 years because they were forgotten or trapped in a hot vehicle.
The most hot-car incidents occur from May through September. Children have died in cars every month of the year, although June, July, and August are the most common months.
Being stressed can increase your likelihood of memory lapses that lead to leaving your child in a car, according to a prominent cognitive neuroscience expert who has researched the function of memory in such tragedies.
David Diamond, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, told Consumer Reports recently, "Forgetting a child is not a negligence problem but a memory problem."
'The most common response is that only bad or negligent parents forget kids in cars,' Diamond says. 'It's a matter of circumstances. It can happen to everyone.'
Texas leads the nation with 160 hot car deaths, according to KidsandCarSafety.org.
There were 16 cases of vehicular heatstroke deaths reported from 1990 to 2024.
Cars can heat up quickly; interior temperatures can rise 20 degrees in 10 minutes. Even if it's only in the 60s outside, the temperature inside a car can reach 110 degrees.
Examples of interior heat based on a 95-degree day:
To prevent putting children at risk, Kids and Cars recommends the following safety tips:
◾Create a visual cue: Place a favorite toy in the car seat when it's empty. When you put your child in the car seat, move the toy to the front passenger seat as a reminder to check the back seat before leaving the car.
◾Create a reminder to check the back seat.
◾Make sure you have a strict policy in place with your child care provider to call you immediately if your child doesn't show up as planned.
◾Keep vehicles locked at all times, even in driveways or garages. Ask home visitors, child care providers and neighbors to do the same.
◾Keep car keys and remote openers out of reach of children.
◾Teach toddlers how to honk the horn of a car if they become trapped inside.
◾Never leave children alone in or around cars, not even for a minute.
◾If you see a child alone in a vehicle, get involved. Call 911 immediately. If the child seems hot or sick, get them out of the vehicle as quickly as possible.