6-month-old boy dies, bringing U.S. toll from hot car deaths to 27

The Associated Press

Last Updated:Aug 13, two thousand sixteen Trio:49 PM ET

The number of child deaths from being left in a hot car reached at least twenty seven in the U.S. this year, including six in Texas. Reuters

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A six-month-old boy died after being left all day in a hot sport utility vehicle in a San Antonio-area Walmart parking lot, authorities said.

His death brings the number of children who have died in hot cars in the U.S. this year to at least 27, including six in Texas, said Janette Fennell, founder and president of KidsAndCars.org, a national child safety non-profit based in Philadelphia. That’s up from last year’s total of 15.

The baby’s father, who works at the store in the suburb of Helotes, told officers that he left behind to drop his son off at day care before going to work about 6:15 a.m. Friday, said Helotes police Capt. Anthony Burges. The father found his child dead after completing work and returning to the SUV about three p.m.

Temperatures in the area hovered around thirty eight C much of the afternoon.

The father was taken to a hospital after reporting chest agonies, Burges said. No charges have been filed in the case. The name of the infant’s father has not been released by authorities.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office on Saturday identified the infant as six-month-old Dillon Martinez from San Antonio. Helotes police had primarily said the infant was seven months old.

Number of child hot car deaths proceed to rise

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and data collected by San Jose State University, the number of children dying of warmth stroke in automobiles began to rise following the widespread introduction of passenger-side airbags in the 1990s.

An increase in airbag related fatalities of children in front seats prompted parents to buckle their children in rear seats, but while airbag-related fatalities began to decrease by 2000, the number of children dying of warmth stroke rose due to children in back seats being less noticeable to parents and caregivers, according to researchers at San Jose State University.

With the children strapped into the back seat, drivers can tend to leave behind them, Fennell said.

Fennell said the numbers of heatstroke deaths of kids in cars fluctuated in the following decades, averaging thirty seven such deaths a year since 1998. The worst year was 2010, with 49, according to both a count by Fennell and Jan Null, a research meteorologist at San Jose State University, who also tracks numbers.

Parents should get into the habit of always opening their back doors when they leave the vehicle, says founder of U.S. child safety non-profit. (Fred Beckham/Associated Press)

This year, on Aug. Four, twin 15-month-old damsels died after being found in the back seat of a hot SUV parked in front of a duplex near Carrollton in northwestern Georgia. When police arrived, they found people holding the women in the water of a baby pool behind the duplex, some with ice packs, attempting to cool the women off.

The temperature inwards a parked car on a 32-degree day will reach forty eight C in twenty minutes and fifty six degrees after an hour, Null said.

Parents should get into the habit of always opening their back doors when they leave the vehicle, according to Fennell. Leaving a purse or cellphone in the back seat can help. Parents also need to make sure their day care calls them if the child doesn’t showcase up, she said.

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