A 3-year-old found in a hot car outside an educational center is nation’s 10th child heatstroke death this year
By Melissa Alonso and Raja Razek, CNN
A 3-year-old died Monday after being left inside a vehicle by his father outside a Jewish education center in northern Miami-Dade County, Florida, the Miami Gardens Police Department said.
The death is the 10th pediatric vehicular heatstroke death in the United States this year, according to NoHeatStroke.org, a website run by a San Jose State University lecturer that tracks hot car deaths. More than 900 have occurred since 1998 — or 38 per year, on average, the site states, noting: “All of these deaths could have been prevented.”
The high temperature Monday in northern Miami-Dade reached 93 degrees, with a heat index of 103, as very hot temperatures this week have baked the Southeast.
Police responded Monday around 3:47 p.m. to the Lubavitch Educational Center to a report of an “unresponsive 3-year-old toddler inside of a vehicle,” police spokesperson Diana Delgado-Gourgue told CNN.
The toddler was “pronounced deceased by doctors” at a hospital, police said.
The “investigation later revealed, the 3-year-old was left in the vehicle by his father. No charges have been filed at this time,” Delgado-Gourgue said.
CNN has reached out to the medical examiner and Lubavitch Educational Center for comment.
“This tragedy hits close to home, and many in our school community have been affected by it,” Rabbi Benzion Korf, the dean of the educational center, told CNN affiliate WPLG.
“No words can capture the heartbreak and sadness we feel. Our deepest sympathies are with the family at this time of great loss. We ask the community for their prayers and to respect the family’s privacy as they grieve,” his statement said.
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CNN Weather’s Caitlin Kaiser contributed to this report.
