Pulaski County Sheriff reports 3 recent hot car rescues

The Pulaski County Sheriff is reminding parents of the dangers of accidentally locking kids in hot cars on the first official day of summer.

The sheriff posted the warning on Facebook late Tuesday night.

It says the department has responded to three reports of kids locked in hot cars over the last two weeks. In each case, the sheriff says someone got out of a turned off car and locked themselves out with children still inside.

The sheriff says the children were under the age of 2 in each case and says deputies had to break the windows of the vehicle each time to save the child.

Sheriff Jimmy Bench says the temperatures inside a shut up vehicle can climb very quickly into the lethal range when it comes to the health of a small child.

He cited nationwide statistics in his post saying since 1998, some 712 children have died in hot car incidents.

The sheriff says in 2016, there were 39 such deaths and so far in 2017, there have been 12 cases of death.

Sheriff Bench reminds parents to make sure they have both their keys and their children in hand when getting out of their vehicles to ensure you don’t mistakenly lock your child inside a hot car.