A 6-month-old baby is dead after his father left him in a hot SUV outside a Texas Walmart, police said.
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According to Capt. Anthony Burges of the Helotes Police Department, the baby’s father, who is an employee at the store in suburban San Antonio, apparently left the boy in the vehicle when he arrived at work at 6:15 a.m. Friday.
The boy’s father was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Temperatures in the area hovered around 100 degrees much of the afternoon.
The baby was left in the father’s SUV from 6:15 a.m.to 3:09 p.m., when the father came out of work and discovered the child in the back seat, Burgess said.
No charges have been filed.
The child safety advocacy group reported that Friday’s incident marks the 27th hot car-related death of a child this year.
The baby was supposed to be taken to a day care in the morning, but the employee told police he forgot.
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The toll started sharply rising in the 1990s as more laws were passed that required young children be put in the back seat to avoid air-bag injuries. With the children strapped into the back seat, drivers can tend to forget them, Fennell said. The temperature inside the vehicle was estimated to be well over 140 degrees. Parents also need to make sure their day care calls them if the child doesn’t show up, she said.
