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8-month-old baby dies in a hot car after being left by his father for 'several hours'

by AP
21 Jun 2012 at 00:23hrs | Views
US - An 8-month-old Kentucky boy died in a hot car on Monday after his father forgot to drop him at day care, the Associated Press reported.

Louisville police said Lincoln Lindsay's father left the boy strapped in his car seat when he went to work, about five miles from his home in Louisville's East End neighborhood.

The father later found the boy's lifeless body still strapped in the seat and rushed him to their home, hoping the boy's mother, who worked in medicine, could revive him, local station WDRB reported.

Ambulances eventually arrived at the family's house, and the boy was pronounced dead there at 6:17 p.m.

Authorities haven't nailed down how long the boy was stranded in the punishing heat, but said it appeared to be several hours.

The mercury in Louisville hovered around 90 degrees all day, and authorities said temperatures inside the car easily topped 100.

Lincoln's parents, who were not identified, were questioned by police, but no charges have been filed.

Experts said it was common for busy parents to leave children behind in cars.

Numbers from Forget Me Not USA, an Oklahoma-based organization that raises awareness about the problem, said 532 children have died after being left in hot cars since 1998.

Kentucky had 18 hot car deaths from 1998 to 2011, according to the group's website.

"A lot of the times it is a parent that might not have the child with them at all times and so if they've got work or other things on their mind the child might fall asleep in the backseat so they don't hear them. It's easy to do." Kristin Norris, of Exploited Children's Help Organization in Louisville, told WDRB.

Last month, a Texas mom was arrested for allegedly leaving her 2-year-old boy in the car while she downed margaritas at a Dallas Tex-Mex joint for 30 minutes.

That mom, Jessica Christian, had cracked the windows. The boy survived. She was charged with child abandonment and child endangerment.

Warnings about children left in hot cars come as the Northeast was bracing for the massive heat wave.

Temperatures in cities from Boston to Washington, D.C. were expected to reach triple digits starting Wednesday, the official beginning of summer and the longest day of the year.

New York was under a hot weather advisory, with the mercury expected to hit 94 degrees on Wednesday and 98 degrees on Thursday.

The heat wave was expected to snap over the weekend.

Source - AP
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