Children left unattended in parked school vehicles: Internet content analysis and systematic literature review of case series.

Abstract

Purpose: Childhood injuries resulting from being left in vehicles are an important cause of pediatric mortality. However, no previous study has primarily focused on this occurrence in parked school vehicles. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and characteristics of children left unattended in parked school vehicles in Thailand, and systematically review the nature and causes of children being left unattended in parked school vehicles in the peer-reviewed published literature. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review of three databases including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science using the specific search terms “parked vehicles” and “child”, and an online search of Thailand published news in websites for incidents that occurred over the 10 year period from January 2010 to December 2020. Results: We found five studies of 96 incidents of children left in parked vehicles; 10 cases occurred in school vehicles. From internet content analysis in Thailand, among 20 cases of children left unattended in parked vehicles, eight cases occurred in school vehicles. All cases were left more than 2 hours and resulted from being forgotten by the teacher or school driver. The median age of children was three. The majority of incidents occurred in the wet or summer season during the first school semester. Conclusion: Children left unattended in parked school vehicles occurred in children slightly older than those occurring in private vehicles, and they show a notable seasonal effect that is not driven by temperature alone but by occurring early in the academic calendar.