With warm summer days still very much with us, our team thought it would be good to look into the risk posed by leaving young children or pets in a warm vehicle for even just a few minutes.
Research has shown that on a warm day where the temperature hovers around 30 degrees Celcius, vehicles can get warm surprisingly quickly. If you leave your car in the sun, the temperature inside it can increase to the rate of about 10C above the temperature outside within 10 minutes, 19 degrees in 30 minutes and can easily reach up to 60 degrees Celcius! Despite our limited scientific equipment, we thought we would try the same experiment at the Wyant Group. Audi Saskatoon kindly lent us an Audi S7; we let the vehicle cool to just about the same temperature as the ambient air (34 degrees on a warm summer day), and left the vehicle to evaluate how quickly the temperature would increase inside. The results speak for themselves!
As fun as this experiment was, it was also an excellent reminder of the dangers of leaving children or pets in a vehicle in the summer. Heatstroke is a concern for all, but children – especially young children – are more vulnerable because their bodies heat up three to five times faster than an adult’s. Pets are also at risk. Dogs can’t cool themselves off by sweating, and their panting becomes highly inefficient when the surrounding air becomes increasingly warm.
In light of these considerations and of how quickly vehicle temperatures increase, it is important to remember not to leave either children or pets in a vehicle.
From all of us at the Wyant Group, we hope you find these tips useful and wish you a great summer!