MD Toddler Dies After Several Hours In Hot Car, Police Say

SILVER SPRING, MD — A toddler died in Silver Spring on Wednesday after police said she was left inside a hot car for several hours.

According to Montgomery County police, officers responded to a home in the Wheaton-Glenmont area shortly before 1:44 p.m. after receiving a call about a child in a vehicle.

When police arrived, they found the two-year-old girl inside the car. She was taken to an area hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

A WJLA report said the father dropped one child off at school but had forgotten to drop the 2-year-old off at a babysitter. It wasn’t until hours later that the child was found.

The recorded high temperature in Silver Spring on Wednesday was 76 degrees.

The toddler was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which will determine the cause and manner of death. Police said the death is not being investigated as a homicide.

The child is the second in the U.S. to die this year after being left in a hot car, according to the advocacy organization Kids and Car Safety.

At least 1,127 children have died in hot cars nationwide since 1990 and at least another 7,500 survived with varying types and severities of injuries, according to data collected by Kids and Car Safety. Approximately 88 percent of children who die in hot cars are age 3 or younger and the majority were unknowingly left by an otherwise loving, responsible parent or caregiver.

Research conducted by No Heat Stroke founder Jan Null, an adjunct professor and research meteorologist at San Jose State University, shows that on a 70-degree day, the temperature inside a vehicle can reach 89 degrees within five minutes. Within an hour, it can reach 113 degrees.

It’s even worse on 90-degree days. Within five minutes, the temperature can reach 100 degrees; in an hour, it can reach 133 degrees.

Young children are at a heightened risk of dying of heatstroke, and not only due to their inability to escape a hot car. A child’s body temperature rises three to five times faster than that of an adult, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Heatstroke begins when the core body temperature reaches about 104 degrees, and children can die when their temperature reaches 107.

NoHeatStroke.org offers some tips to help parents and other caregivers prevent leaving children in cars during hot weather.

• Never leave a child in a vehicle unattended — even if the windows are partially open or the engine is running and the air conditioning is on.

• Make it a habit to check your entire vehicle — front and back — before locking the door and walking away. Train yourself to “Park, Look, Lock,” or always ask yourself, "Where's Baby?"

• Ask your child care provider to call if your child doesn’t show up for care as expected.

• Place a personal item such as a purse or briefcase in the back seat, as another reminder to look before you lock. Write a note or place a stuffed animal in the passenger's seat to remind you that a child is in the back seat.

• Store car keys out of a child's reach, and teach children that a vehicle is not a play area. A quarter of all hot car deaths occur because the child got into an unlocked car, not because a parent left them inside, according to the NHTSA.