When you leave a child or an animal in a blazing hot car the temperature quickly rises to fatal levels, and the occupant suffers heatstroke, which can lead to death within a very short time:
-
Average elapsed time and temperature rise
- 10 minutes ~ 19 deg F
- 20 minutes ~ 29 deg F
- 30 minutes ~ 34 deg F
- 60 minutes ~ 43 deg F
- 1 to 2 hours ~ 45-50 deg F
- “Cracking” the windows had little effect
- Vehicle interior color probably biggest factor
- "Parents and other caregivers need to be educated that a vehicle is not a babysitter or play area ... but it can easily become tragedy"
- Heatstroke occurs when a person's temperature exceeds 104 degrees F and their thermoregulatory mechanism is overwhelmed
- Symptoms include : dizziness, disorientation, agitation, confusion, sluggishness, seizure, hot dry skin that is flushed but not sweaty, loss of consciousness, rapid heart beat, hallucinations - A core body temperature of 107 degrees F is considered lethal as cells are damaged and internal organs shut down
- Children's thermoregulatory systems are not as efficient as an adult's and their body temperatures warm at a rate 3 to 5 times faster than an adults.
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/carlisle-dad-left-screaming-kids-in-hot-car-then-threatened-rescuer-1.894507?referrerPath=home
A man left two children, one of them naked, in a car in a Carlisle shop car park, in searing heat. The man's partner had gone in to do the shopping, and had left him with the children. He decided to go and help his partner and left the tiny children alone in the frightful heat, in an unlocked car, with the windows down only slightly.
A woman shopper saw the doors were unlocked, so she was able to get the children out
As she opened the car door, she said, she was met by a searing heat from inside the car and a “terrible stench”.
She assumed the children needed a nappy change.
One of the children had no clothes on, she said.
Another shopper took details of the car and went into the shop and asked for a Tannoy announcement to ask the owner to come back to the car. Eventually the dad came back, by which time the children were very distressed.
When the children's father came back to the car he was abusive and aggressive to the rescuers,
yelling at the women: “What’s it got to do with you?” He became aggressive towards one witness, taking her photo and saying he would get his mother-in-law to “smash her face”, and that her family would not recognise her.
What a hero eh? Would get his mother-in-law to smash her face? What sort of man is this we are hearing about?
The woman who rescued the children was understandably shaken and alarmed. A worker from the store, who was on her break, said the inside of her car "was so hot that she had to open all the windows and the sun roof to make it bearable".
This vile man, who tried to worm out of being sentenced by saying he only expected to be gone a little while and that the car was parked in the shade (?) obviously didn't even consider how frightened the little children would be to be left on their own, let alone in searing heat.
The thing that really really gets my ire up is that he has received a suspended sentence. Good job he wasn't in Australia, he would have gone straight to gaol, no messing. The idiot on the bench -
Joe Rowe, chairman of the bench, told the defendant his treatment of the Good Samaritans was “disgusting”.
The bench imposed 20 weeks in jail but suspended it for 18 after deciding that jail would punish children who would be left without a father.
He must also take a Probation Service thinking skills course, do 150-hours of unpaid work in the community and pay costs of £85.
I don't know about anyone else, but in my opinion these children would be better off without a father like this.
