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Twenty-five years ago this month, a reporter called with a question I couldn't answer. A 5-month-old child had died after being left in a hot vehicle, and he asked, "How hot could it have been inside that car?" That single question changed the course of the next 25 years of my life.
Unable to find reliable research, I began conducting my own studies of how quickly vehicles heat across a range of temperatures. What started as scientific curiosity soon became a long-term commitment to understanding—and preventing—Pediatric Vehicular Heatstroke (PVH). Along the way, I collaborated with child safety organizations and researchers, including colleagues at Stanford University, resulting in a 2005 paper in Pediatrics that remains one of the most frequently cited studies on vehicle heating and children.
Over the past quarter of a century, I have documented more than 1,000 tragedies and built what has become one of the world's most comprehensive databases of pediatric vehicular heatstroke cases through NoHeatstroke.org. The site is used by researchers, journalists, public health professionals, educators, advocates, and government agencies to better understand the circumstances surrounding PVH deaths.
No one would choose a project like this. Every entry represents a child whose life ended too soon, and a family forever changed. Yet public awareness has grown, research has advanced, and vehicle safety technologies continue to improve. Every child protected because someone remembered to check the back seat is meaningful progress.
As I mark this milestone, I am grateful to the many people and organizations that have shared information, challenged my thinking, and supported this work over the years.
My hope remains simple: that one day this database will no longer be needed. Until then, I will continue documenting these tragedies and working toward the goal that has guided me for the past 25 years—that no family should lose a child in a hot vehicle.
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