Leaving kids in cars

A sad incident in Oldham County over the weekend should remind us all never to leave kids waiting in cars.

Police found an unresponsive 3-year-old boy in a vehicle at 4:20 p.m. Sunday. The child was taken to Norton’s Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Courier-Journal.

A cause of death has yet to be determined, so we can’t say if the child died from heat stroke while sitting in the vehicle. But that shouldn’t stop us from remembering and reminding each other to never leave children unattended in a vehicle.

It doesn’t matter if you think you’ll only be gone for a moment or if you think it’s cool or cloudy enough outside. Even on a 70-degree day, the temperature inside a car can reach 100 degrees or more in half an hour.

On warm days and/or with a vehicle parked in direct sun, interior temperatures can skyrocket. Temperatures climb the quickest the first 15 minutes a car is parked, and when the temperature outside is between 80 and 100 degrees, interior temperatures are capable of climbing to between 130 and 172 degrees, according to the CDC.

At least 22 kids under the age of 15 have died from heat stroke in a vehicle in Kentucky since 1990, according to kidsandcars.org. Kentucky newspapers have reported on at least two heat-stroke deaths this year — one in Frankfort and one in Crittenden. Let’s do everything we can to make sure there aren’t any more.

Candidates filing for office

Today is the deadline to file for non-partisan races in Boyle County. We hope plenty of people file so voters have plenty of choices in all the races.

Democracy is all about choice, but voters can’t make choices if the choices aren’t available. Without more than one option for a race, it’s not much of an election.

Sometimes in local races, there’s only one option because the incumbent has done a good job and no one feels strongly they could do better. That’s OK, but we’re big fans of democracy, and we believe competition helps make even the best better.

So, to all the candidates who filed last year, to those who filed this week, to those who filed today, to those reading this on their way to file at 3:59 p.m. — thank you. Your willingness to put yourself in the public eye, to subject your opinions to scrutiny, to take the risk of losing for the chance to help your community, is part of what makes America awesome.