Summer safety tips for parents

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) -- The warmer months means kids will be spending more time outdoors, but officials are reminding parents it's also a dangerous time of year.

"Summer and warm weather, hands down, are the times when kids are at enormous risk for falls," said Faith VosWinkel from the Office of the Child Advocate.

One of too many reasons the injury prevention community calls summer "trauma season" for kids. The hazards start at home as we open our windows to the warm weather.

"Already, this year, we've had two children die in our state," VosWinkel said.

But other falls can make summer fun fatal.

"Bike crashes, where people either are not wearing their helmet or are not wearing their helmet properly, and they fall off their bike or crash off their bike, and really get injured," said Karen Brock Gallo, from the Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

Then there's the old swimming hole.

"We really want to make sure that parents are aware that kids in and around water really need to be watched at every moment," Gallo said.

• Drowning facts and tips

One way that kids wind up in a place like the Connecticut Children's Medical Center is being left in a car on a hot day. A car can heat up 20 degrees in just ten minutes, even with the windows open, and a child's body heats up three-to-five times faster than an adult's.

"Either the parent has told them 'I'll just be a minute, don't get out of the car,' and they've been taught not to talk with strangers, or, some other times the kids are playing with a cars and they find an unlocked car, maybe they're playing hide-and-seek, they go in to the car, get overwhelmed with heat, and then aren't able to get themselves out," Gallo said.

And of course, kids need to be safe around firework.

"Burns, taken eyes out, explosions, hearing problems afterwards, fingers missing," said Hartford Fire Marshal David Beliveau.