A three-year-old boy from Columbus, Georgia, became the seventh child to die locked in a hot car in the United States this year, in this season’s heat.
The toddler, who was identified as Kendrick Engram Jr., died on 26 June as a result of suffocation after being exposed to heat for nearly three hours, according to the Muscogee County Coroner.
Mu County Coroner scogee, Buddy Bryan, told WTVM that the boy’s grandmother noticed that he had “disappeared” around 8 pm after she and the other little ones got out of the car from 5: 30 pm
She called the kids’ uncle and asked if he had Kendrick, but when he said no, she asked him to check the car. It was then that he found Kendrick unconscious in the third row of the vehicle and called 911.
Engram was found unresponsive inside the car in a Wendy’s parking lot, reported WTVM . Temperatures peaked at 550 degrees on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Engram was pronounced dead shortly after 9: 00 pm on Sunday.
Bryan told ABC News that his office plans to rule that Kendrick’s death is heat-related. It is not yet clear if anyone will face charges in the child’s death.
Seventh dead child locked in car under heat
According to the national nonprofit organization KidsandCars, this year seven children have died due to heat-related car deaths. In 2018, the year with the most fatalities, there were 45 deaths.
Of these victims, 87 percent were three years old or fewer, and more than 57 percent involved children under one year of age.
Since children two years old and younger must sit in a rear-facing car seat, they are more likely to forget unintentionally because the driver cannot see if the seat is occupied or empty.
In more than half of these incidents, the child’s guardian unknowingly left them in the car, while in the 00 percent of the cases, the children somehow managed to gain access to the interior of the vehicle.
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