Kidsafe Victoria, Ambulance Victoria and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade have combined forces to issue an urgent warning to parents over the deadly dangers of leaving children in cars on hot days.

Aleks Natora, State Manager of Kidsafe Victoria, said that children have died from being left in cars. This is particularly an issue over summer, where children's lives can be endangered within a couple of minutes during a hot day. Kidsafe has been implementing a community awareness campaign, advocating for Hot Car Signs to be installed in all car parks.

?We are hoping all councils in Victoria are proactive and install the signs on the entry of all public car parks in their municipalities and introduce a Hot Car sign policy for all future shopping centre developments.    

Over the past year a number of daycare centres and preschools have displayed the signs on their car park entrances.?

Kidsafe, the MFB and Ambulance Victoria, Getting the Message across on Hot Cars

In some cases the signs are sponsored by Service Clubs or local Real Estate Agents in support of their communities.      

Tests conducted by Ambulance Victoria on a 29 degree day with the car's air conditioning having cooled the interior to a comfortable 20 degrees showed it took just 10 minutes for the temperature to more than double to 44 degrees and in a further 10 minutes, it had tripled to a deadly 60.2 degrees.             

Leaving the window down a few centimetres does little.

?Each summer, the MFB and Melbourne?s various emergency services attend numerous call outs to provide life saving care to young children left in cars,? said MFB senior station officer Murray Talbot. 

Ambulance Victoria Paramedic Trevor Weston said that. ?even in mild weather a car could heat up considerably, putting a young child?s life at real risk.?

The smaller the child the greater the risk. A young child will quickly dehydrate, lapse into unconsciousness and may never fully recover.

Parents should ensure their children have plenty of fluids to drink during hot days and importantly under no circumstances should motor vehicles be used as a babysitter.

Kidsafe Hot Car Signs can be ordered by contacting KIDSAFE directly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Ph (03) 9251 7725.