Ambulance Victoria (AV) responded to a concerning number of kids locked in cars after a weekend of hot weather hit the state.
Paramedics responded to 11 cases of children locked in cars on Saturday 24 January, with a further six on Monday 26 January and at least three more as the temperature rose above 40 degrees on Tuesday.
Av Director of Emergency Management Dale Armstrong said they are urging Victorians to heed their advice.
“It is never safe to leave children or older people unattended in vehicles, in any weather, but particularly when we know that our state is facing days of heatwave conditions,” he said.
“The temperature inside a vehicle can double and become deadly within minutes.
“It is particularly dangerous for children to be left inside vehicles, as a child’s body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult.”
Saturday’s call-outs occurred across the state, with eight in Metropolitan regions, and one each in Barwon South West, Hume and Loddon Mallee.
Mr Armstrong said the incidents were particularly confronting for their crews given the significant amount of community information which had been issued to Victorians ahead of this week’s predicted heatwave conditions.
“One call-out to a child locked in a car on a day like yesterday is too many – eleven is just ‘not on’.
“We know that accidents can happen, and often this is not intentional – but it is still potentially fatal.”
“We encourage parents and carers to make sure keys are kept with them and to be alert while loading family members in and out of vehicles and if anyone accidentally gets locked inside a vehicle, call Triple Zero immediately.”
While it is never safe to leave kids in cars, there have been historic cases where children have been left by accident, but there are a number of techniques parents and carers can use to help prevent these incidents, such as:
Leaving important items such as a phone, purse, wallet, bag or shoe in the back seat.
Doing rear checks every time you hop out of the car, even if you know the child isn’t there.
Place an item like a stuffed toy in a car seat when empty and when placing your child in the seat, move the toy to the front of the car as a visual reminder.
Use smart car seats or phone apps that can send an alert if the child is in the seat once the car is locked.
Keep cars locked at all times at home and keep keys out of reach.
Teach older children to honk the car horn if trapped inside a vehicle.
The heat also resulted in a spike in overall workload for AV, with demand increasing by 27 per cent between 5am and 6am on Tuesday 27 January, largely driven by activity in metropolitan Melbourne.
Across Victoria, overall ambulance workload was up 4 per cent since midnight Tuesday 27 January, as at 4 pm that day.
