Prevent In-Car Heatstroke With Parking-Lot Vigilance

From the Kansas woman who spent several long minutes working to break a car window to free a child trapped inside to the Massachusetts father who called police after he realized he'd left his sleeping baby in his parked car, parents, caregivers and community members are preventing in-car heatstroke deaths in children.

Related: Too Many Kids Die of In-Car Heatstroke Each Year

So far this year, 11 children have died of heatstroke, according to NoHeatstroke.org. At this time last year, 19 children had died, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While fewer children have died this year, it's still too many.

Today is National Heatstroke Prevention Day. NHTSA reminds parents to look before they lock the car, but what about bystanders who happen to notice a child left behind in a parked car? NHTSA offers the following tips:

• If you see a child in a parked car, check to see if the child is responsive.
• If the child isn't responding to you, call 911 and then try to get into the car. If that means breaking a window, do it. To break a car window, hit the window in one of its lower corners, which are its weakest points.
• If the child is responding to you, attempt to find the parents. If you have someone with you, one person should stay with the child in the car and the other should search for the parents. This could mean alerting the store's security detail for the parking lot or paging the car owner over the store's public address system. If you're by yourself, enlist the help of a stranger or use a cellphone to call the store where the car is parked.

Be a little nosy as you walk through parking lots and keep an eye out for movement in parked cars. There could be a child trapped inside, and your vigilance could save a child's life.