Hot cars — s’more dangerous than you think!

Leaving your pet or child unattended in a car — even for a few minutes — can be a deadly mistake. In May, a toddler was rescued outside of Ulta in Greenville after being left in his mother’s car. Fortunately, the outcome was a happy one. However, that’s not always the case.

As you can see from the photo, temperatures in an unattended vehicle can reach more than 40 degrees above the outside temperature in less than 30 minutes. This depiction, shown outside the Kohl’s store in Greenville, featured a white SUV with its windows up. At 10:30 a.m., after being in the sun for thirty minutes, the temperature was 125 degrees in the car — while the air temperature outside was only 83 degrees. By 11:30 a.m., the temperature inside the car reached over 133 degrees.

The NC Department of Insurance gave special recognition to the individuals who participated in the successful rescue of the child left unattended outside Ulta in May, including bystanders who called the police, the first officer on the scene, and nearby restaurant workers who immediately placed the child into their kitchen’s refrigerator to lower his body temperature.

As the temperatures crawl towards 100 this Summer, the Partnership encourages everyone to take additional precautions to ensure that the children in our community are always safe in and around vehicles.