The Delray Beach Police Department wants to get the word out on hyperthermia after it was announced Florida leads the nation with five deaths.

One-degree per minute. That's how fast the mercury rose in a thermometer placed inside a vehicle with doors closed and windows up at the Delray Beach Police Department.

Florida leads the nation in 2009, with five deaths attributed to hyperthermia deaths of children in vehicles. That includes the June 20 death of 3-month-old John Gavin McDonald when according to the Department of Geosciences at San Francisco State University, the academic body that conducted the study and research, the boy was left in a 92-degree vehicle. The other 2009 hyperthermia deaths of children in vehicles occurred in Jacksonville on June 24, St. Augustine on June 14, Fellsmere on June 13, and Sweetwater on May 21.

"Hypothermia... in cold weather is always mentioned by mainstream media. It's now time for the focus to be on hyperthermia caused by heat," said Delray Beach Mayor Nelson "Woodie" McDuffie says.

On July 21, a 90-degree day at the Delray Beach Police Department, a late model Chevrolet Sedan reached 130-degrees on the exterior and 112 degrees in the interior where a baby dummy was placed in the vehicle by the Delray Beach Fire Department.

"Children are being left in cars accidentally. Others are being trapped during play. We have safety recommendations for the public," Delray Beach Police Chief Anthony Strianese said.

Any legal guardian could be responsible for leaving a child in a hot car for 15 minutes, which is punishible by up to $500 fine and other possible charges.

But, as the Delray Beach Police Department showed, degrees rise in just a few minutes during the summer months putting children in extreme danger of hyperthermia death.

Delray Beach Police Department Chief Anthony Strianese tells a group of people at the police headquarters that 42 people died last year of hyperthermia in the U.S. Virtually all of those who died were younger than 4.

D.B.P.D. public information officer Jeffrey Messer shows an accurate thermometer reading placed in the vehicle to prove the quick danger of hyperthermia children face.

A baby dummy was placed in the vehicle by the Delray Beach Fire Department.

After 20 minuted the baby dummy was scorching.

Chief David James of the D.B.F.D. suggested that parents take a teddy bear on every road trip their child goes on with them so that each parent remembers that each time they stop they have to take the child and teddy bear out of the vehicle in an effort to remember to take children out of hot vehicles.

Mayor McDuffie says "children are at serious risk for heat stroke. Residents should never leave a child unattended."