St. Petersburg, FL- A toddler dies after his father leaves him in a hot car and forgets to drop him off at daycare.
When a Florida father went to pick up his one-year-old son from daycare and the staff informed him that the toddler had never arrived, his entire world was turned upside down. Shortly after, the child—who had spent the entire day in his father’s car—was declared dead.
Local media outlets ABC Action News, ABC 7 Sarasota, and FOX 13 Tampa Bay reported that the unnamed guy picked up his child from the Bayfront Child Development Center in St. Petersburg after work on Wednesday, Nov. 6.
After arriving at around 5 p.m. local time and talking to staff, the man discovered the heartbreaking truth that he had never really dropped off his child at the center.
“At that point, then the father kind of realized what was going on and went back out to the car,” St. Petersburg Police Department spokesman Yolanda Fernandez told FOX 13.
As temperatures reached a record high of 91 degrees, the outlet stated that the small youngster was discovered unconscious in the backseat of his father’s car, where he had spent the whole day.
After being summoned to the parking lot, emergency personnel attempted CPR on the one-year-old in an attempt to save his life. However, FOX 13 reports that he was declared deceased at the site. According to investigators, he was in the overheated car all day.
Fernandez told FOX 13 that the father neglected to drop his son off because he had taken his son to an appointment that morning, which was outside their regular schedule.
According to the outlet, he was scheduled to drop the kid off at Bayfront after the appointment before returning home, where he works.
St. Petersburg Fire Rescue division commander Lindsay Judah told FOX 13 that “it can become 20 degrees hotter inside a vehicle with the doors closed in just ten minutes.” The toddler was in his father’s car for hours.
Image of a toddler sitting in backseat of the car.
To ascertain the precise circumstances of the child’s death and to determine whether charges can be brought, authorities are conducting an autopsy and conducting an active investigation, according to ABC Action News and ABC 7 Sarasota.
PEOPLE’s request for comment was not immediately answered by the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Judah informed FOX 13 that a death similar to the little boy’s occurred at St. Petersburg Fire Rescue last in 2017.
She advised drivers to “make reminders” for themselves when a youngster is in their car, particularly one that “prompts them to look in the back seat,” in order to stop more tragedies.
The fire chief recommended options such as placing the child’s teddy animal or shoe on the front seat.
