Volusia County toddler dies after being left in car for nearly three hours – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WSVN) — Parents rushed their toddler to the Volusia County hospital after leaving her in a truck for more than two hours.

Body camera footage showed Volusia County sheriff’s deputies wrapping crime scene tape around a blue pickup truck outside a hospital on Thursday. The vehicle belonged to the parents of the two-year-old girl.

A sheriff’s office report said the family, including three other siblings aged 14 to 8, left the toddler in the truck after they got home from lunch.

It wasn’t until almost three hours later, when they were about to leave the house, that they found the child strapped into her car seat and unresponsive. Her parents rushed her to the hospital, where her death was pronounced.

According to Janette Fennell, President of Child and Car Safety, it doesn’t take long for a car’s internal temperature to reach unsafe levels.

“In the first ten minutes, the vehicle temperature will rise by up to 20 degrees. So when you’re 89 you’re going to be 110 very quickly and it’s all uphill from there. If you get a body temperature of 106, 107 now, it’s deadly.”

The toddler was the second child to die in a hot car in the area in two weeks. The latest incident happened in Palm Bay when an 11-month-old child was left in a car by his mother while going to church.

In this case, the mother was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child.

Statistics show that half of all heat-related fatalities this year occurred in Florida.

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