TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – It doesn’t take long, even if your car is in the sun, the shade or even if your window is cracked for the temperature inside to reach dangerous levels.
Hot car deaths keep happening in Florida and that’s led a mother, who lost her daughter in one of those deaths, to push for real change to mandate cars tell you when someone is in the back seat.
Aryia Paige would have turned four on Friday, Aug. 4.
“When I got there or when she opened the door, she just ran to the SUV on the side that I put Aryia in that morning, and I seen Aryia there,” Brooke Paige, Ariya’s mother said. “Her lips were purple. Her body felt rubbery, she was wet. I immediately knew there was no hope.”
In 2023, Aryia’s babysitter left her inside a hot car in Baker County. The next year, state lawmakers passed ‘Aryia’s Act,’ designating April as Hot Car Death Prevention Month in Florida.
Brooke Paige is still seeking more tangible change.
Florida mother pushing for regulation after losing daughter in hot car death(Brooke Paige)
“I feel like an alarm should go off if there’s a weight. I feel like there’s more that can be done,” Paige said. “So, yeah, in this case, I don’t feel like people are taking this as serious as they should.”
Firefighters say parking in the shade or cracking the window barely makes a difference and hot car deaths are some of the most horrific calls they respond to.
“When we’re struck or trapped in a hot vehicle, our body temperature rises very quickly. And for a child, that rises even quicker,” Todd Inserra, public information officer for the Tallahassee Fire Department said.
Experts recommended an outside the box solution: Put your shoe or other necessary items in the back seat, so you have to go back there when you park.
Florida’s legislative session begins again in the spring of 2027 where hot car related death bills could be part of discussions.
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