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KidsAndCars.org Warns Parents To "Look Before You Lock" After Anderson Toddler Dies In Hot Car

Last updated on Tuesday, June 5, 2018

(UNDATED) - KidsAndCars.org, an organization advocating for injury control and child safety in relation to automobiles, warns parents of deadly statistics in wake of the death of a 3-year-old girl after being left inside a car for several hours.

Police say the girl, identified as Hannah Grace Miller, was found unresponsive after being left inside the car for about two hours.

Her father found her in the car and immediately started performing CPR. She was pronounced dead at St. Vincent Regional Hospital at 6:40 p.m. Sunday, according to the Madison County coroner.

The coroner says the child's cause of death was acute heat exhaustion/overheating.

According to KidsAndCars.org, in over 55 percent of cases similar to this, the person responsible for the child's death unknowingly left them in the vechicle.

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KidsAndCars.org urges parents to take these facts into consideration:

The Greenhouse Effect in Vehicles 

Contributing Factors 

Memory (Competing Brain Systems)

What actually causes a parent to forget their child is in the car? According to a fact sheet from the organization, a part of the brain called the basal ganglia takes over and suppresses the prefrontal cortex mentioned in the list above. The brain is on autopilot, doing what it would do on any given day, not accounting for changes in routine. Memory 
specialists note that the basal ganglia is much more likely to take over when someone is fatigued.

"Parents lose awareness that their children are in their cars. Tragically, these parents report that they had pictures of 
their child on their desks, they talked about their child, and even left work on time to pick up their child from daycare," said Dr. David Diamond, Neuroscientist at the University of South Florida.

KidsAndCars.org suggests following these tips to prevent heat stroke tragedies:

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