Three-month-old Elle Runnion was left in a hot car for more than seven hours on Thursday in Kansas, where temperatures reached into the 90s. Her parents had accidently forgotten about her when they parked outside a business, the Salina Journal reported. Additional details were unavailable.
At least one child has died of hyperthermia or heat stroke each week since June.
Daniel Slutsky became the second child this week to die in a hot vehicle after being accidently left behind by a day care worker.
Daniel, 2, was forgotten for 6 and a half hours in a car with the windows rolled up outside a daycare center in suburban Philadelphia. Rimma Shuartsman, the operator of Fairy Tales Day Care and also his neighbor, had been taking the boy to the facility three times a week since September, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. But on Wednesday morning, she apparently forgot to take him out of his car seat.
Daniel died of hyperthermia. The high temperature was only 83 degrees, but that’s enough to turn a locked car into an oven. Police are investigating and haven’t made a decision on whether to charge Shuartsman.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible for one week to pass this summer without a child dying of heat exhaustion or hyperthermia in a hot car.
A 23-month-old girl was left strapped in her car seat in front of her family’s home in suburban Baltimore for more than eight hours on Saturday. Police said a change of routine caused the parents to forget about the child, but didn’t specify details, the Baltimore Sun reported. The parents, who were not publicly identified, will not be charged in the incident, police said.
The 11-month-old boy was left in a hot car in a supermarket parking lot as temperatures reached 100 degrees on Saturday, police said. An employee at the HEB supermarket in Killeen, Tex., spotted the child and called 911. Firefighters broke open a car window to rescue the baby, who looked dazed from the heat, KXXV TV News reported.
The child had been left in the car for at least 17 minutes, authorities said. The mother, Sarah Lowelle Traylor, was arrested and charged with child abandonment.
Senior firefighter Robert Arrendo told KXXV that young children are more at risk to hyperthermia because they “have a smaller amount of fluid that their body can hold, so them sweating just like we would would cause them going into a type of shock.”
Two-year-old Elise Nelms unbuckled herself out of her booster seat and opened the sliding door of the minivan being driven by her grandmother. She then fell out and was run over by a rear tire, police said.
Elise died a week after the June 17 accident, when she was taken off life support, the Peoria Journal Star in Illionis reported. She had multiple injuries to her head and chest.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that kids should not be in booster seats until they are at least four years old. Younger children should be in a car safety seat with a five-point harness.
The babysitter had taken other kids into a store with her on Wednesday, but forgot about the 2-year-old boy in her truck. Two hours later, Shantel Wilcher returned and apparently discovered little Bernard Davis unconscious, police said. He was later pronounced dead of hyperthermia. The high temperature in Jacksonville, Fla., was about 90 degrees.
Bernard’s family told reporters that they want Wilcher, 38, charged with murder. So far, police have only charged her with running a daycare without a license, a misdemeanor, the Florida Times-Union reported. Police said the investigation is continuing.
Wilcher had been caring for Bernard and his 3-year-old brother for the past four months, while their mother attended school. On Wednesday, Wilcher had taken Bernard’s brother and her two teenagers into the store with her.
The two-year-old girl was being cared for her grandparents on Saturday while her father was at work. April Knight and two other kids had been out and had returned to the grandparents’ home in Lexington, Ky., the Herald-Leader reported.
The grandparents took one of the girls, 12, into the home to deal with “an issue,” and apparently thought the other older child would take care of the toddler. She did not. About two hours later, April was found dead, still strapped to her car seat, police said. The high temperature on Saturday was 89 degrees.
So far this summer, at least one child a week has died in a similar situation.
Again, it’s a tragic reminder for busy parents to check their cars. A Florida man drove his wife to work on Sunday, but didn’t realize that she had put their one-year-old daughter in her car seat, police said. It wasn’t until four hours later that the father, then at home, realized that the girl wasn’t in her crib. He found her unconscious in the car. She was pronounced dead at the hospital, WOKV TV News reported.
No charges have been filed, but the state’s Department of Children and Families is investigating. Last week, an infant in the San Francisco Bay Area died after his father parked at a transit station, headed to work and forgot about him. Prosecutors decided this week not to charge the man, saying that he had suffered enough for his mistake. Read about a California mom who left her daughter in a hot car in 2007 and her ongoing guilt about the child’s death here.
In recent days, three parents have been charged with leaving their kids in hot cars. Thankfully, the children were rescued — sweaty but unharmed — after being spotted by passersby. On Monday, a Houston-area mom was issued a citation after her toddler girl was found in a car parked at an apartment complex, KTRK TV News reported. The mother, who told authorities that she had run inside an apartment to get some documents, was not punished more severely only because the windows had been rolled down.
A Fresno, Tex., mom was arrested and charged with child endangerment over the weekend after leaving her five-year-old daughter in a Wal-mart parking lot. And on Saturday morning, a University of New Hampshire professor was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after his 16-month-old son was found alone in a parked car in downtown Durham, N.H.
The child’s father was supposed to drop him off at a babysitter’s, but instead drove to a subway station in the San Francisco Bay Area and left him behind in the car all day. Everett Carey was found by his mother after she found out that he never made it to the babysitter’s, police said.
The four-month-old boy was discovered unconscious inside his dad’s 2006 Chrysler at the El Cerrito Plaza Bart Station and died shortly afterwards at the hospital on Monday night, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Police are investigating, and it’s not clear whether the father will face criminal charges. The high temperature on Monday in El Cerrito was 65 degrees, but it would have been much hotter in the car, with the windows rolled up.
An estimated 36 kids die each year after being trapped in overheated cars. The majority are left behind accidently by their parents or caretakers. Summer is the most deadly time.
The Chronicle listed tips from authorities to help caretakers remember to check on a child in the backseat:
– Keep a stuffed animal in the car seat and place it in the front seat as a reminder whenever the child is in back.
– Always place something in the backseat — such as a purse, lunch bag or windshield sunshade — that requires you to open the back door every time you park.
– Ask your child care provider to call you or other emergency contacts within a short period if the child does not arrive.
Once again, a mother learns the hard way that it’s better to take your kids inside the store than leave them out in the car.
Jennifer Macy of Indianapolis went shopping this week in a drug store while her three young children were left in the family van — with the keys in the ignition and the engine running, police said. So her 3-year-old boy jumped in the driver’s seat.
Somehow, the van was shifted into reversed and hit another car in the parking lot, a prosecutor said. A 7-year-old sibling jumped out of the van and ran inside. Luckily, no one was seriously injured, WTHR TV News reported. Macy was charged with child neglect and could face up to three years in jail. Meanwhile, a judge has ordered her not to have contact with her kids.