Dog lovers helped craft laws to save kids in hot cars

By the time Steven Eckel spotted her, the baby girl in the back seat was drenched in sweat. The 4-month-old had been left alone in a locked car in the parking lot of a New Jersey shopping center. It was a steamy August afternoon, and she was covered with a wool blanket.

“She was hysterically crying, screaming,” Eckel said. “Her eyes were rolling in the back of her head.”

He ran to his car, got a sledgehammer, ran back to the car, shattered the window, and pulled her out. Police say he saved her life.

Eckel said he didn’t think twice about breaking the window. But, worried that others might have hesitated — maybe out of the fear that the parents would be angry, or even sue — a growing number of states are passing laws to encourage people to take action.

This year, at least five states — Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Texas — enacted laws to protect bystanders from being sued for breaking a car window to rescue a child in an emergency. Over the last four years, amid growing awareness of the dangers of leaving children alone in cars, at least 16 states, including Wisconsin, have enacted such laws.

But in many places, it wasn’t a concern for children that set the measures in motion. As videos of dogs trapped in cars circulated online and in the media, local animal advocates contacted their state legislators to see what could be done. And once lawmakers started looking into protecting pets, they realized that children might need help, too, and added them to their proposals.

But in Texas, the opposite happened. The Texas legislation that became law does not include animals. Animal welfare groups there faced resistance from rural ranchers who were concerned that the measure might apply to livestock they leave in the back of a cattle carrier, said state Rep. Celia Israel, who supported the law.

Greenhouse effect

Despite the new laws, 29 children died of heat stroke during the first seven months of this year, according to Jan Null, a meteorologist and lecturer at San Jose State University who studies the topic. That’s the highest number since researchers started tracking such deaths nearly 20 years ago, Null said. The average number per year is 37, according to noheatstroke.org.

Ir only takes minutes for the inside of a car to go from comfortable to deadly hot. A car traps heat and warms air in the same way a greenhouse does, Nulll said. The temperature inside rises about 19 degrees in the first 10 minutes, from 90 degrees to a deadly 109 degrees on a summer day, according to Null’s estimates.

Most children are left in cars by mistake, according to Null and advocates for child safety. The number of deaths surged in the 1990s, when it became illegal in many states to drive with a small child in the front seat because of airbag dangers. “So we put them in the back seat,” Null said, “and basically put them out of sight.”

The new laws provide protection for bystanders who help, but only in certain circumstances. Most of the laws say a bystander must have a “reasonable belief” that the person or pet is in imminent danger. Under Wisconsin's 2015 Good Samaritan law, if you see a vulnerable person or a pet in a car you suspect is dangerously hot, you must:

1. Check to see if the doors are locked.
2. If yes, look to see if an adult responsible for the child or pet is nearby.
3. If no, call 911 and then try to break one of the windows in the vehicle.

Researchers such as Null said they don’t know of anyone who has been sued for breaking a car window to save a child. But lawmakers and others worry that the fear of being sued may be preventing people from acting.

And, when a few more minutes in a hot car means life or death, supporters say the laws could save lives.

“No one should have to hesitate when a child’s life is at stake,” said Amber Andreasen, director of Kids and Cars, a safety advocacy group.

Changing behavior

Not everyone agrees that bystanders should try to break windows to save children, either. Safe Kids Worldwide, a national nonprofit that advocates for child safety, encourages people who spot children in distress in cars to call 911, and let emergency responders save the child, said Anthony Green, the organization’s director of public policy. The child could be hurt when the window is broken, he said.

Andreasen and Green say their organizations focus on initiatives that may help prevent children from being left in hot cars in the first place, such as awareness, education and car technology. The groups are advocating for a proposal in the U.S. House, the Hot Cars Act, which would require cars to include a sensor that alerts drivers when a child has been left in a back seat.

“If there aren’t any children being left then we won’t have to rescue them,” Andreasen said.

There isn’t strong evidence that the original good Samaritan laws made people more inclined to act in emergencies, Waisman said.

But results from one recent survey, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and sponsored by Auto Alliance, an industry group, and Safe Kids, indicated that the new laws might have the power to change behavior. After the basics of good Samaritan laws were explained to parents and caregivers who participated in this year’s survey, more than half said they would be more likely to act if they saw a child in distress in a car if their state had such a law, said Micah Roberts, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies.

When breaking the car window to save the baby girl in New Jersey, Eckel said it didn’t cross his mind what the laws were. He considers it a moral issue: He said he cared more about the baby more than what happened to him.

“It’s about being humane, and helping another human’s life.”

Stateline is a news service provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Louis Weisberg contributed to this article.