Summertime

JUST when you thought it was safe to lock the kids in the car and go spend a few hours on the putting green, child- safety advocates have come forward to remind us that closed cars can turn into death ovens during the summer months. A coalition known as the National Safe Kids Campaign says at least 120 children have died over the past five years due to this type of criminal neglect, and so is unleashing a public-awareness effort built around the slogan “Never Leave Your Child Alone.” In the same spirit, General Motors has unveiled a new radar device that can detect movement within a car and, should the car become dangerously hot, will start blowing a horn.

The Safe Kids Campaign is not only sending up flares about the danger of roasting children in cars, minivans, and pickup trucks. It is warning that summer itself is a time of great peril, accounting for nearly half of injury-related deaths to children—a total of 2,550 is projected for this summer—mostly due to drowning, bike crashes, and vehicular deaths. Former surgeon general C. Everett Koop says these deaths represent an “epidemic,” adding that “if a disease were killing our children at the rate that unintentional injuries are, the public would be unbelievably outraged and demand that this killer be stopped.”

JUST when you thought it was safe to lock the kids in the car and go spend a few hours on the putting green, child- safety advocates have come forward to remind us that closed cars can turn into death ovens during the summer months. A coalition known as the National Safe Kids Campaign says at least 120 children have died over the past five years due to this type of criminal neglect, and so is unleashing a public-awareness effort built around the slogan “Never Leave Your Child Alone.” In the same spirit, General Motors has unveiled a new radar device that can detect movement within a car and, should the car become dangerously hot, will start blowing a horn.

The Safe Kids Campaign is not only sending up flares about the danger of roasting children in cars, minivans, and pickup trucks. It is warning that summer itself is a time of great peril, accounting for nearly half of injury-related deaths to children—a total of 2,550 is projected for this summer—mostly due to drowning, bike crashes, and vehicular deaths. Former surgeon general C. Everett Koop says these deaths represent an “epidemic,” adding that “if a disease were killing our children at the rate that unintentional injuries are, the public would be unbelievably outraged and demand that this killer be stopped.”