1-year-old dies in hot car after she isn’t dropped off at daycare, Texas cops say
A 1-year-old girl died Thursday after being left in a hot car for more than nine hours, Texas officials say.
Investigators with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the infant’s mother dropped off her 5 and 3-year-old children at a daycare around 8:30 a.m. Thursday. The mother apparently forgot to drop off her youngest child, leaving her in the car throughout the day, a member of the sheriff’s office said in a news briefing streamed by KPRC.
The mother drove home and changed vehicles before traveling back to the daycare at 6 p.m. Deputies said the mother went to pick up her three children, but the daycare only showed records of two being dropped off.
The mother and a worker from the daycare drove back to the home, where they found the 1-year-old girl in the backseat floorboard of the vehicle parked on the street, according to the sheriff’s office. The baby was pronounced dead at the scene, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
Temperatures reached the mid 90s Thursday in Harris County and it’s likely the car had inside temperatures of more than 120 degrees, according to investigators.
The mother was detained Thursday for questioning and the case will be sent to the district attorney’s office. It’s unclear if she will face charges.
The name of the baby has not been publicly disclosed and an autopsy is underway to determine the cause of death.
There have been at least 20 hot car deaths of children this year, according to the National Safety Council. On average, 38 children under the age of 15 die from heatstroke annually after being left in a hot vehicle, according to research by Jan Null, CCM, Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, San Jose State University, who provides data to the NSC.
Null’s research shows that more than half of the children who die in hot cars are forgotten in the vehicle by a parent or caregiver.
Texas has more hot car deaths than any other state, with 134 since 1998, according to the NCS.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 10:56 AM with the headline "1-year-old dies in hot car after she isn’t dropped off at daycare, Texas cops say."