A five-year-old boy died on Monday, June 20, after being left in a car outside the family’s house in Houston, Texas, USA.
According to the local news station KTRK the mother and sister (8) went into the house to arrange for the eight-year-old’s birthday celebration, while the five-year-old was left strapped back in the car.
He is said to have been imprisoned for between two and three hours, before the mother discovered that the son was not in the house with the rest of the family.
Thought the son came after
Police Chief Ed Gonzalez says all three had previously been to a store to shop for the celebration.
To the police, the mother has stated that she thought her son came after, and believes the five-year-old knew how to take off his seat belt.
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According to Gonzalez, the car was a rental car. It is therefore assumed that the boy was not familiar with the car’s mechanisms.
The five-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene by health personnel.
It must have been extremely hot the same day, and according to CNN several new heat records were set in the city. At Houston Hobby Airport, among other places, the degree must have measured as much as 38 degrees Celsius.
It is not known if the mother will be prosecuted, writes The Independent.
Pct 3 units were dispatched to the 13700 blk of Blair Hill Ln. Upon arrival units determined a child (possibly 5 yrs) was left inside a vehicle for several hours. The child was pronounced deceased at the scene. HCSO Investigators are enroute to the scene. #HouNews pic.twitter.com/MNbhPHIHSU
— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) June 20, 2022
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Disturbing numbers
According to figures from the American organization National Safety Councilan average of 38 children under the age of 15 die each year from heat stroke, after being left in a vehicle.
Texas, where the five-year-old died, is the state with the most such deaths in the United States.
Children, the elderly and the chronically ill are more prone to heat stroke, mainly due to physical limitations that allow them to stay too long in the heat, writes Lommelegen.
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Twin boys died
In September last year, two twin-year-old twin boys were found dead in a car in South Carolina.
The children were forgotten in the car while the parents went to work. They were initially to be delivered to the kindergarten earlier in the morning.
It took a full nine hours before the father discovered that the children were in the car. Both died of heat stroke.
It was decided that the twins’ father would escape punishment. The police concluded that it was all an accident, and believed that the father was under strong pressure at work and therefore was forgetful.
– He has to live with this for the rest of his life, the police said.
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