Record-breaking heat has been hitting the country, making this summer very tough. Sadly, it has also caused a lot of heat-related deaths. According to the nonprofit KidsAndCars.org, at least 10 children have died this year after being left in hot cars.
The most recent case is a five-year-old boy who died after being left in a hot car in Omaha, Nebraska. Authorities said the boy was found unresponsive outside a beauty salon where his foster mother works.
A witness told KETV that he and Juanita Pinon, the boy’s foster mother, rushed out of the salon around 5 p.m. on Wednesday and found the boy inside an SUV. They performed CPR before taking him to a local hospital, where he was declared dead.
Officials determined the boy had been left in the vehicle for approximately seven hours.
On Wednesday, the temperature in Omaha reached 89 degrees. When the boy was found the heat index was 88 degrees, and according to local meteorologists, it would only take 10 minutes for the inside of a vehicle to reach 100 degrees.
Pinon, 40, was arrested and charged with child abuse by neglect, resulting in death.
“The suspect did not provide a statement to declare whether it was an accident or intentional,” Omaha police spokesperson Chris Gordon told ABC News.
It breaks my heart to hear about yet another child who died because they were trapped in a hot car. What more can we do to ensure this doesn’t happen again?
