No, I don’t want a blow-by-blow description of the process of dying of heat stroke. Sadly inspired by this thread, I pose the question:
Since the invention of the automobile, how many children have died in the US from being left in a hot car? I assume the death rate has gone up since air conditioners were added to cars. How does the US compare to other industrial countries when it comes to children dying in hot cars, and how do other countries penalize such idiots?
Oh, c’mon! 62 views and not even a guess?
Well, there were 175 such deaths for the 1996-2002 period-
http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/safety/child_passenger_safety/releases/hot_car_051402.html
Just guessing here, maybe somewhere around 1500 car-frying deaths in the U.S. total?
I would imagine the deaths have gone up since cars were invented, because I doubt older cars were as airtight.
Well, older cars didn’t have AC, so I would think people drove around in the summer with the windows rolled down. Any child left in the car then wouldn’t have died of heat stroke.
Right … and probably people didn’t lock cars as much back then either. I know my older relatives didn’t.
So was there a sudden jump in deaths after AC’s were installed? When were AC’s installed in cars?