Thirty-one children died of vehicular heatstroke in the United States in 2025, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, down from 39 in 2024. More than 1,000 children have died this way since 1998.
The detail that changes how families should think about the problem is who these deaths happen to. NHTSA reports that more than half of pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths result from a parent or caregiver forgetting a child in a car. Another portion involves children who climbed into an unlocked vehicle on their own and became trapped, accounting for more than 230 deaths since 1998.
