Child Safety in Locked Vehicles: Prevention & Awareness

A five-year-old child was forgotten inside a locked school bus for approximately 90 minutes on Thursday on Ezra Street in Bnei Brak, Israel. The boy was discovered in time and transported in stable condition to Mayanei HaYeshua Medical Center in the city.

Emergency medical volunteers from Hatzalah responded to the scene after receiving a report of a child left in a vehicle. The responders provided immediate medical care to the child, who showed signs of heat exhaustion and dehydration after being trapped in the closed bus during the day's heat.

Hatzalah medics Tzvi Lustig and Pinchas Haber, who arrived at the scene with an ambulance, described what they found: "When we arrived, we encountered a child approximately five years old showing signs of heat exhaustion and dehydration, after being forgotten in a school bus for about an hour and a half."

The medics explained their response: "Together with Hatzalah volunteers and Magen David Adom personnel, we provided initial medical treatment, including cooling measures and fluids." They added that the child was transported by Hatzalah ambulance in stable condition to Mayanei HaYeshua Hospital for continued care.

This incident joins a troubling pattern of similar cases that occur annually, particularly during the hot summer months. Inside a closed vehicle, temperatures can rapidly climb dozens of degrees above the outside temperature, reaching 50, 60, or even higher degrees Celsius (122-140°F or more).

According to data from Beterem, Israel's child safety organization, 23 children have died over the past five years as a result of being forgotten or trapped in vehicles, with 53 injured and 1,513 rescued safely. Infants and toddlers face especially high risk, as their bodies heat up three to five times faster than adults.

Several months ago, a tragic incident occurred in Baltimore's haredi community when a one-year-old child died after being left in a locked car. In another case, a four-month-old infant was rushed to hospital in serious condition after spending an extended period in a closed vehicle in a community in the Sdot Dan Regional Council.

Safety organizations have long urged parents, drivers, and transportation operators to implement prevention systems. Research shows that children being forgotten in vehicles does not stem from negligence, but rather from cognitive failure that can happen even to devoted parents. During periods of fatigue, stress, or changes in routine, the brain shifts into "autopilot" mode.

ZAKA and Beterem recommend several simple preventive steps: placing a personal item in the back seat, counting children upon arrival at destinations, and installing special alarms in car seats. During summer, the danger becomes particularly lethal, within approximately half an hour, the temperature inside a closed vehicle can reach around 70 degrees Celsius (158°F).