A 5-year-old boy died Monday in a suffocating car in Texas while his family was preparing for his older brother’s birthday celebration later that day.
The boy was accidentally left in the vehicle outside the family’s Harris County home for several hours, the local sheriff said, as temperatures outside rose to 100 degrees.
The boy’s mother had returned home with her two children in the back seat of her car, saw her 8-year-old son jumped and assumed her young son had also left, the county sheriff said. of Harris, Ed Gonzalez.
She realized two or three hours later that he had disappeared and ran out and found that her son was still tied to a child safety seat in the back of the car. He was called to the SEM and declared the young man dead at the scene.
The family was busy preparing for the 8-year-old’s birthday party at the time of the toddler’s death.
The mother told police her son usually knows how to get off and out of the car, but the car where he died was a loan vehicle, Gonzalez said.
Police said the investigation is ongoing.
The family did not notice the absence of the 5-year-old until two or three hours later. FOX26
One day after the boy’s death, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office tweeted tips for teaching children car safety, including teaching them to unhook their car seat, blow the horn, turn on the dangers and unlock the front doors.
The notice came with the note that this month is on its way to being the hottest June in history.
The 5-year-old is the fifth child in the United States to die from a heat stroke after being left in a car this year, according to meteorologist Jan Null, who has been tracking these deaths since 1998.
His death is also the second such fatal incident in less than a week. Last Thursday, a 3-month-old baby died after being left in a hot car for several hours in Pennsylvania.
The temperature of a car can reach 115 degrees when the outside temperature is only 70 degrees, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Since 1998, 912 children have died in hot cars. In most cases, they were forgotten by a parent or caregiver.