2-year-old dies after being left in hot car in Florida
The child and her family had just returned home from a luncheon trip when she was left inside the vehicle for about two hours, authorities said.
A 2-year-old child has died after being left in a hot car after family came home from lunch.
A 2-year-old girl has died after being left in her family’s vehicle for several hours in an Orlando, Florida, suburb, according to authorities.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said the child’s parents discovered that their daughter had been left in the car Thursday in Orange City and rushed her to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly before 6 p.m., local time.
The parents told investigators that they went out to lunch in DeLand, about 15 minutes north of Orange City, and returned home around 2:40 p.m. with their daughter and her two older brothers, ages 15 and 8.
Around 5 p.m., the girl’s parents said they went out to the vehicle and found her “unresponsive” in the car, the Sheriff’s Office said.
This latest incident marks the eighth hot car death nationwide this year and the fourth in Florida, according to the nonprofit group Kids and Car Safety. Last year, there were 36 vehicular heatstroke deaths.
In 2018 and 2019, a record 53 children died each year from being left in a hot car, according to the National Safety Council.
Safety experts say you need to always believe that the tragedy of a hot car death could happen to you, so that you have a safety plan in place for your child.
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Law enforcement officials and other experts warn that the inside of a vehicle can heat up very quickly, and children can die from heatstroke in a car even when the outside temperatures are as low as 60 degrees Fahrenheit, researchers have noted.
"It's important for families to understand that it doesn't have to be 90 degrees outside for a child to suffer from heatstroke inside a vehicle," Amber Rollins, the director of the national non-profit organization KidsandCar.org, previously told AccuWeather.
"Child hot car deaths and injuries are largely misunderstood by the general public, and the majority of parents believe this would never happen to them," Rollins said.
For more information, resources and safety tips, parents and caregivers can visit the Kids and Car Safety website.
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