Baby Dies After Being Left Alone Inside Hot Car
A 10-month-old baby is dead after being left alone Thursday inside a hot car in Austin, Texas, KTLA reported. Police haven’t charged the male driver, who was found at the scene, with a crime. It’s unclear how the driver and the baby may have been related.
According to police, employees at a Waffle House spotted the baby around 2:45 p.m. in the car. After calling police, the employees pulled the baby out of the car, which was unlocked, and attempted CPR. Local reports say the temperature was around 98 degrees.
Coroners said the baby died of hyperthermia, or elevated body temperature.
Police say they aren’t sure how long the baby was in the car alone.
The death is a sad reminder how quickly cars can heat up without ventilation and its tragic results.
The Humane Society said that a car can heat up to 120 degrees within 30 minutes if the outside temperature is 85 degrees. Last month, Walmart announced a child seat with a built-in reminder to alert parents of children in the back seat when the ignition is turned off.
(Photo courtesy Austin American-Statesman)
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I've seen this over and over: not necessarily kids left in a car, but just wandering around stores unwatched. And for some reason, they seem to think I'm just another (big) kid, so guess who they wander over to? The worst example of neglect I saw was two little ones, left strapped in the back of a top-down convertible, in a parking lot of a cleaners-where the parent(s) were, they could not have seen the car, so if an abductor came along, it would have been over in seconds. Made me wonder if it wasn't a police sting, it was so insane.
Not sure I can successfully post this link, but if you have a chance I highly recommend reading this Pulitzer Prize winning article about parents accidentally leaving kids in cars. It might change your perspective on how this happens and what the parents go through. "Fatal Distraction" by Gene Weingarten https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html
My wife is Dutch and we were listening to Dutch news yesterday. A couple left home and drove an hour and a half before they realized they had left their 3 year old at home. And they only realized it because they heard about it on the radio. Bad parenting is not just a US thing.
First of all, how the heck is anyone dumb enough to leave any living creature--let alone an INFANT--in a car when it's nearly 100 degrees out? And secondly, why the frak hasn't this steaming pile of poop been charged with manslaughter?!