An 11-month-old baby girl in Virginia died on June 26 after her father left her in a hot SUV for hours. The police in Fairfax County said in a statement that the police and the Fire and Rescue Department of Fairfax County responded to a call from Springfield after reports of an unresponsive child in a vehicle.
Child neglect
The 11-month-old infant was immediately rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. According to the police, the father left his daughter in the backseat of the SUV parked at his Springfield home. The authorities said that his father forgot his baby inside the car and used another car to run errands.
After the father returned home, he drove the SUV to an in-home daycare to pick up another child. That was when he realized that the 11-month-old baby was still in the back seat of the SUV. The police have not named the father and it is still not clear how long the infant was left inside the SUV.
The medical examiner is still in the process of confirming a cause of death. Fairfax County police said that they do not expect to file criminal charges in this case.
According to No Heat Stroke, the infant is the sixth child to die in a hot car in 2020. In 2019, 52 children died of heatstroke after being left inside the car.
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Deadly statistics
Since 1990, more than 900 children have died in hot cars in the United States. Every year, an average of 38 children die, that is one in every nine days, according to KidsAndCars.org, a website that tracks deaths in hot cars.
As the statistics increase every year, parents, organizations, experts, and government officials have been searching for ways to stop the deaths of children. KidsAndCars.org is now working to pass bipartisan legislation in Congress that would require all new passenger cars to include a child safety alarm.
The founder of KidsAndCars.org, Janette Fennell, told USA TODAY that the organization has been looking for ways to resolve this ongoing issue in the United States. The organization is trying to get alert systems added to vehicles since 2003 to help remind parents to check the car before leaving.
The organization included language in other bills but it was stripped. The Hot Cars Act of 2017, another bill developed by the organization, was attached to another bill.
Unfortunately, both of the bills did not pass. The safety bill would require that all cars add both visual and audio alert that sends out a vibration warning. It will automatically activate when the engine of the car is turned off.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal is a co-sponsor of the bill. He told USA TODAY back in 2014, a 15-month-old toddler died because the child was left in a hot car. The incident happened in his state, Connecticut, and that was when he decided to get involved.
Sen. Blumenthal said that a father forgot that his child was in the back seat of the car, which is the most common reason behind this tragedy.
Sen. Blumenthal added that these deaths can be prevented if there are alert systems in the car that remind parents to look at the back seat before locking the car. Some car manufacturers, like Hyundai and GM, are already making alert systems and will be adding them to the new car models.
