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BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Amy Waters with The Safety Place says the first step to preventing leaving your child in a hot car is to always assume it can happen to you. You should also follow certain procedures every time you drive with a child. For example, putting things like your phone or shoe in the backseat.

“A lot of those may sound silly, but they are things that on an everyday basis, you were not going to step out of your car without,” said Waters.

The most common reason that these accidents happen is a change in routine, so they also recommend setting an alarm on the day that you have a child in the car.

“Caregiver A always brings the baby and today caregiver B has to, and their brain goes into autopilot, they are used to driving to the office every day and that’s where they go,” explained Waters.

No parent wants to imagine accidentally leaving their child in the car, but it happens, and according to the National Safety Council, it happens often. An average of 37 children under 15 die each year from heat stroke after being left in a hot car.

“Heat stroke is when they’re essentially cooking inside, and when they’re cooking inside, things can happen that are irreversible,” said Meg Kling, Public Education Officer for St. George Fire Department.

According to Kling, they receive on average, 10 calls a month for children that have accidentally been locked in cars.

“They’re playing with the keys and all of a sudden don’t know where the kid is, they might be playing in the car, and if it’s really really hot and they don’t know how to get back out of the car that’s another problem,” added Kling.

Kling and Waters both recommend using a tool called a ‘Resqme’ to break a window if you find a child left in a hot car. They say you should never hesitate to use it, because it can take only minutes for things to turn deadly in this summer heat.

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