Vehicular heat stroke fatalities - tragic accident or murder?

• Author: Von Fricken, Alexander G.

EVERY YEAR AS SUMMER BEGINS to bring images of the beach and cookouts, the weathermen sound the warnings--the weather will be too hot for children, elderly, and pets. The media always reminds the public "not to leave your children or pets in your car." Despite countless heat warnings issued, these deaths still happen each summer The average age of the victim of fatal vehicular heat stroke is under three years of age. (1) Every year, prosecutors struggle with the decision to charge a parent in the face of media blitzes that call such incidents "tragic accidents." The year 2010 saw a record 49 deaths, and 2011, as of November 8, witnessed 31 children die from vehicular heat stroke. (2) Prior to 2010, the average number of cases of hyperthermia or vehicular heat stroke was 38. (3)

Heat-related illnesses begin as a continuum divided into three phases. The mildest form, heat stress, manifests itself in the physical discomfort commonly experienced with activity on a hot day. The symptoms of the second phase, heat exhaustion, include intense thirst, weakness, discomfort, anxiety, dizziness, fainting, and headache. The final phase is heat stroke, which has a mortality rate of 80 percent for children. (4)

Cellular damage begins to occur once the body's core temperature reaches 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius), which leads to organ failure and death. (5) A child left in a hot car long enough will progress through the three phases and experience central nervous system dysfunction, which results in delirium, seizures, coma and death. (6) A 50 percent child mortality rate is associated with sustained exposure to heat. (7) A body temperature of 106.9-107.6 degrees Fahrenheit is lethal within 45 minutes to a maximum of eight hours. (8)

Because of their immature respiratory and circulatory systems, children do not manage heat as effectively as adults and are more susceptible to heat induced illnesses. As soon as the body temperature raises more than one degree Fahrenheit above baseline (99 degrees Fahrenheit), heat defense mechanisms come into action: there is increased blood flow to the skin, allowing the body to radiate heat, and increased sweating, allowing cooling by evaporation. Hyperthermia occurs once those regulatory mechanisms are overloaded. Once sweating stops, the body temperature rises rapidly. Children have a greater surface area to body mass ratio, a lower rate of sweating, a slower rate of acclimatization, and their body temperature can increase three to five times faster than an adult. (9) A child's core body temperature can quickly reach up to 108 degrees. How rapidly this occurs, depends on the child's baseline temperature, hydration status, and amount of clothing, and also on the degree of environmental temperature. Again, from the above mentioned study, a miniature of one to two hours seems necessary. (10) Once the child is dead the body may continue to heat from external sources even more rapidly because the body's cooling mechanisms (increased blood flow to the skin and sweating) are abolished.

Given the unique physiology of children and the high temperatures experienced in the interior, a vehicle can quickly become a death chamber. Most car windows are transparent to solar radiation but opaque to long wave radiation. This characteristic prevents heat from exiting and creates a greenhouse gas effect that rapidly heats the vehicle. (11) On days when the ambient temperature is 86 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, the temperature inside a vehicle can reach 134 degrees to 154 degrees. (12)

The temperature inside a vehicle can rise more than 40 degrees in less than an hour with more than 80 percent of that increase occurring in the first 30 minutes. (13) Children can die of hyperthermia even when the temperature outside is not especially hot. Experiments done on sunny days with milder ambient temperatures produced significant temperature increases. (14)

ACCIDENT, NEGLIGENCE OR MURDER?

When evaluating the circumstances of a case where a child has died from vehicular heat stroke, the prosecutor will be faced with public scrutiny and media bias. There often exists a community perspective that an overzealous prosecutor is seeking unnecessary retribution or that the tragedy of the accident should be considered punishment enough. A prosecutor will have to first decide if the caretaker committed a crime. Due to the serious nature of any potential charges, the investigation of these cases should be exhaustive.

WIDE DISPARITY OF SENTENCES

An Associated Press analysis of more than 310 unattended child fatal incidents in the past ten years found that prosecutions and penalties vary widely. Criminal charges are filed in half of all cases even when a child was left unintentionally. Whether a charge occurs and the duration of the sentence often depends on where the death occurred and the caregiver involved. This study showed that while mothers and fathers are charged and convicted at about the same rates, mothers are 26 percent more likely to do time. (15) In addition to being more likely to serve time, the median sentence of mothers is two years longer than that of fathers. Day care workers and other paid baby sitters are more likely than parents to be charged and convicted, but they are jailed less frequently than parents and for less than half the time. (16)

LEGAL COMPARISONS

The wide range of statutes on state books can partially explain this disparity. Charges vary state by state and can range from manslaughter to felony child abuse and neglect to felony murder. (17) Nineteen states currently have laws that prohibit leaving children unattended in automobiles. (18) The...