A two-year-old girl was found dead inside a car in the driveway of a house yesterday in Franklin Township, New Jersey.
The incident was reported around 2 : 30 pm outside a house on Sumerall Road, reported ABC News. According to investigators, for unknown reasons the minor was left in a car sometime on Tuesday morning. It was not until the afternoon that someone noticed and called 911.
“She collapsed on the ground. She was taken away in the ambulance. Then more police came and put yellow tape around the car,” said neighbor Alex Krstevski.
Rescuers were visibly shaken as they marked the area around the vehicle, area residents said. According to neighbors, the family has another older son. “I can imagine the pain they are going through,” said Treana Huntley. “It was heartbreaking… As a mother, just hearing that pain from another mother, it was very painful. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
A spokesperson for the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office said detectives are still trying to set a timeline for how long the baby remained in the vehicle.
Dr. Erick Eiting, of Mt. Sinai Beth Israel, recalled that extreme heat does not take long to create life-threatening conditions for those who stay inside a vehicle.
“I think what often surprises us is how little time it takes for people in suffering the damage and consequences of heat stroke… Although it may seem like a short period of time, just a few minutes can be deadly,” Eiting said.
More than 940 children died in hot cars across the country of 1990 to 2020, according to KidsAndCars.org, an organization that works to raise public awareness and pressure for the promulgation of laws that prevent that s tragedies.
The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that the internal temperature of a car, regardless of whether the windows are closed or open, can rise up to 70 degrees F (4C) in an hour, even if the thermometer outside reads a few 70F (21C). Most of the temperature increase occurs within the first 15-30 minutes, and no amount of shade is enough to protect children from these dangers, the FDNY noted.
In July of 2019 one-year-old Hispanic twins died in the Bronx (NYC), after their father I’ll forget them in the car when I go to work. The man, Juan Rodríguez, pleaded guilty but was released on parole, considering that he was a victim of post-traumatic stress as a veteran of the Iraq war.