A four-year-old Texas girl suffocated to death in a hot truck after her caregivers forgot about her for about an hour.
Houston Police Department officers responded to emergency calls from an apartment complex near the 6500 block of Hollister Street around 6:30 p.m.
Authorities said the girl was with two women and a group of children running errands in a Chevy pickup truck all day.
The adults later parked their car at the apartment complex and took everyone inside, but left the boy behind.
The incident comes amid multiple reports of babies dying from heat in overheated cars after their parents forgot about them. Experts warn that children can start getting sick within minutes of being locked in a car.
Houston Police Department officers responded to emergency calls from an apartment complex near the 6500 block of Hollister Street around 6:30 p.m.
Investigators believe the girl was abandoned in the hot van for about an hour until one of the women realized the girl was missing, went outside to look for her and called 911.
She was rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Homicide investigators also responded to the scene and reportedly spoke to witnesses. It is unclear whether any arrests have been made.
After the incident, Lt. Larry Crowson of the police department warned that it is very important for parents to be aware of their child’s location.
“In this type of weather, it doesn’t take a few minutes to cause very serious illness or death to someone left stranded in a car,” the official said.
According to the Department of Transportation, about 40 children die each year from heatstroke in the United States after being abandoned or trapped in a car.
Most cases occur when a parent or caregiver forgets that the child is in the car.
At the time of the incident, the city of Houston was reported to be experiencing temperatures between 84°F and 91°F.
Investigators believe the girl was left in the hot van for about an hour until one of the women noticed the girl was missing, went back outside to find her and called 911.
Homicide investigators also responded to the scene and reportedly spoke to witnesses.
More than 950 children have died in a hot car in the past 25 years, records show.
Residents are currently warned to prepare for sunny skies and high temperatures expected to reach Upper 90s today as Hurricane Beryl moves toward the state.
Reports of the incident come less than a month after a tiny baby girl died after being abandoned in the back of a hot car just two months after her adoptive parents brought her home as a newborn.
Diana Sofia Aleman Roman was found unconscious in her pickup truck outside her parents’ home in Santee, San Diego, at approximately 12:20 a.m. on June 13.
She had been left in the car for several hours in 63°F temperatures when a family member found her and called 911. The girl was rushed to the hospital but did not survive.
San Diego County Sheriff’s Office detectives are investigating how Diana was left in the car and who left her there. No charges have been filed.
Diana’s parents, Romer and Jayson De Los Santos, brought her home on April 11 after flying to Arizona, where they met the girl in the hospital for the first time.
Studies show that the temperature inside a car can reach 40°C in just half an hour on a day with temperatures of 21°C and reach 46°C within an hour. The body’s organs begin to shut down at 41°C.
An Arizona mother recently issued a dire warning to parents about this common problem.
Two-month-old baby Diana Sofia De Los Santos, pictured with her father Romer, died after being left in the back of a hot car.
Charlotte Jones was abandoned in the car for approximately three hours in 2019, her father rushed her to a local hospital where she succumbed to the heat.
Angela Jones lost her “sassy” three-year-old Charlotte in 2019 after her father forgot her and left her in the backseat of his car when temperatures topped 98 degrees.
The girl was in the car for about three hours before her father noticed.
Angela recalled the incident in a recent interview with Fox Digital News. Her husband, Scott, had just dropped the couple’s two other daughters off at school before returning home to start working from his home office.
Angela said she forgot she had brought her youngest son on the trip. “Suddenly, I could hear panic in his voice,” Angela said.
‘At first I thought she had gotten into the pool or something and then he said, ‘Oh my God, I don’t think I ever got her out of the car.’
She called 911 and Charlotte was rushed to a local hospital where she tragically passed away in the sweltering heat.
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