Safe Kids Wichita Area

Let’s talk safety!!!! Come out now for quick tips to keep your family safe learning bout poison and medication safety!! Receive a FREE medicine lock box/bags while supplies last!! In front of OLD NAVY at Greenwich!

May 1st is National Heatstroke Awareness Day.

More than 1,000 children have died of heatstroke, because they were left or became trapped in a hot car over the past 25 years. It’s important for everyone to understand these tragedies can happen to anyone — but are always preventable.

In 2025, 31 children died of heatstroke in vehicles.

Parents and Caregivers

1. Never leave a child in a vehicle unattended for any length of time. Rolling windows down or parking in the shade does little to change the interior temperature of the vehicle.

2. Make it a habit to check your entire vehicle — especially the back seat — before locking the doors and walking away. Over 50% of pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths are a result of a parent or caregiver forgetting a child in a car.

3. Ask your childcare provider to call if your child doesn’t show up for care as expected.

4. Place a personal item like a purse or briefcase in the back seat, as another reminder to look before you lock. Write a note or place a stuffed animal in the passenger's seat to remind you that a child is in the back seat.

5. Store car keys and fobs out of a child's reach and teach children that a vehicle is not a play area.

Secure Your Car

Always lock your car when you aren't using it. Even if you don't have a child of your own, a child in your neighborhood could get into your unlocked vehicle. Over 230 children have died from vehicular heatstroke since 1998 because they gained access to a vehicle and became trapped.

Act Fast. Save a Life.

If you see a child alone in a locked car, act immediately and call 911. A child in distress due to heat should be removed from the vehicle as quickly as possible and rapidly cooled.