With summer approaching, increased efforts are being made to alert drivers to be increasingly vigilant regarding children being left in vehicles.

According to a Facebook post by Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s, from 2008 to 2014, there were 323 incidents in Israel which led to 15 deaths. In 83% of the cases, the children left in a vehicle were under the age of 4-years-old. These children are too young to do anything to extricate themselves, especially when left belted into a car seat.

The experts explain that on a pleasant day when ambient temperatures are 22 C (71.5 F), the temperature inside a parked vehicle will increase to 47 C (116.5 F) within an hour. Leaving a window or more cracked a bit will not help.

Bennett adds that 11% of the cases involved children left on transportation vehicles, vans and minibuses. The Knesset has passed law prohibiting such companies from having curtains or any type of decals on windows in the hope of passersby seeing a child left inside a parked vehicle.

Israel Police and Israel’s EMS agencies urge the public to take whatever measures required to remember children before locking a vehicle and not to leave a child in a vehicle, not even for a minute or two. Experts explain at times a driver may leave a child in a vehicle for a minute or two but the errant often takes longer and at times, one becomes involved and the child is forgotten for too long.

Israeli hi-tech experts in Israel continue working on devices that can be used to remind drivers of children in the vehicle. Currently there are a number of items available but they are not viewed as ideal.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)