An 11-month-old baby died after being “left in a parked vehicle for an extended period” outside a local hospice center Tuesday afternoon, according to the Tallahassee Police Department.
Officers responded to the Big Bend Hospice parking lot, 1723 Mahan Center Blvd., at approximately 2:17 p.m., TPD spokeswoman Heather Merritt said. She said medical center employees “called 911 regarding the child in the vehicle.”
Police could not definitively confirm that the death was heat stroke, but noted in an incident alert that the boy “sadly succumbed to his injuries” after being left in the car.
Interviews are ongoing, Merritt added. No one has been arrested at this time.
FROM USA TODAY:Dozens of children are killed in hot cars each year and their parents are rarely charged. This is why.
Bill Wertman, executive director of Big Bend Hospice, did not provide any details of the incident, but said the center’s bereavement program provides grief counseling to staff.
“What we are seeing is a tragedy, plain and simple,” he said.
If confirmed, this would be the 11th pediatric vehicle heat stroke death in the United States this year and the second in Florida, according to NoHeatStroke.org, a website that tracks hot car deaths across the country. Last year there were 23 deaths, three of which occurred in Florida.
Last week, a 3-year-old boy died after being left inside a vehicle in north Miami-Dade County.
Hot Car Deaths:10th child this year dies in a hot car, surpassing last year’s figures
Accident or crime? Dozens of children are killed in hot cars each year and their parents are rarely charged. This is why.
The temperature at 1:53 p.m. was 87 degrees in Tallahassee, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.
Researchers of the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2005 found that the interior of a car can heat up by an average of 40 degrees Fahrenheit in one hour, regardless of ambient temperature. The researchers also found that 80% of the temperature rise occurred within the first half hour.
“There are cases of children dying on days as cold as 70 degrees Fahrenheit,” lead author Catherine McLaren, MD, a clinical instructor in emergency medicine, said in a statement about the research.
Detectives ask anyone who may have information about the incident to call TPD at (850) 891-4200. They can also remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at (850) 574-TIPS.
This is a developing story. Check back for more details.
Contact Christopher Cann at ccann@tallahassee.com and follow @ChrisCannFL on Twitter.
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