VIDEO: The Dangers Of Leaving Your Child In A Car Unattended

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Summertime is just around the corner. It’s the season where many kids will be splashing around in the swimming pools, or staying up late to watch their favorite shows.

However, according to Columbus Fire Marshal Madison Guyton, it’s also the time of year when many parents leave their child in a car unattended.

Guyton said many times people will leave a child locked in a car to do things such as make a quick trip into the grocery store.

However, he advises parents to never leave a child in a car unattended.

“People just think that they can run in real quick, they’ll be in and out, some people actually forget, they have busy lifestyles,” said Guyton, Columbus Fire Marshal.

Guyton said it takes just minutes for the temperature inside the car to heat up.

“When it’s 70 degrees outside, it’ll take ten minutes I believe for the car to get 20 degrees hotter,” Guyton explained. “So it’ll be 90 degrees within ten minutes. Within an hour, it’ll actually be close to 110 degrees just on the 70 degree day.”

A young child’s body heats up three to four times quicker than an adult.

If they’re left a scorching hot vehicle for a long period of time it can have a lasting impact on their bodies.

“The main problem about these heat related illness that we see across the country are hypothermia, which is basically your body overheating,” said Guyton. You can sweat all of those fluids that you have in your body out, and become hypovolemic, you have to get fluids replaced into your body, and you can also make you have seizures, become unconscious, and even death.”

Parents can face criminal charges for leaving a child in a car unattended.

“You could vary from not a crime at all, all the way up to child abuse, or even possibly felony child abuse,” said Steven Woodruff, criminal investigator for the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Woodruff explains how his office determines the charges someone could possibly be faced with.

“We would look at the intentional acts of the adult,” said Woodruff. “Another aspect we will look at was there intentional harm. was there the intent for harm,. What it reasonable to expect that this action could have called some type of harm, and also whether or not there was actual harm caused to the child.”

There are laws in place that allow people to enter into an unattended vehicle to save a child who may be in danger.