Heatstroke Deaths of Children in Vehicles

7-month-old dead after left in hot car outside NW Houston business

A 7-month-old boy was found dead inside a car Friday night after apparently being left by his father when he went to work at a northwest Houston business, according to police.

The baby boy was found by Houston firefighters around 9 p.m. outside a warehouse business in the 7900 block of Northcourt Road, authorities said. The boy apparently died from the heat.

Houston police are investigating the incident, and the case will likely be referred to a Harris County grand jury.

The baby's father, 36, dropped off two of his three children at a daycare Friday morning and then arrived at his workplace on Northcourt Road around 9:30 a.m, according to police.

The baby usually gets dropped off separately to a babysitter.

When his wife called asking the whereabouts of the baby, the father went out to the vehicle around 7:30 p.m. and found the child unresponsive in the car seat.

Paramedics pronounced the baby dead, according to police.
Investigators interviewed the father, contacted the Harris County District Attorney's Office and then released him pending further investigation.

Temperatures reached the lower 90s on Friday with relatively high humidity levels in the morning hours.

Twelve children have already died this year from heatstroke inside a car, according to Kids and Cars, an organization that collects data on child fatalities inside vehicles.

Last year 39 children died from heat stroke inside a car, and 810 children have died from heat stroke inside vehicles across the country since 1994, according to Kids and Cars.

A child's body overheats three to five times faster than an adult body, and a car's temperature can reach 125 degrees in minutes.
Eighty percent of temperature increase inside a vehicle can happen within the first 10 minutes.

More than 55 percent of parents who left their child inside a car unknowingly left them, according to Kids and Cars.

The organization advises parents to always look in the backseat of their vehicle before locking it. They should also put something in the backseat they'll need such as their cell phone, employee ID or briefcase.

Two young children, a 2-year-old and a 16-month-old, were also found dead inside a car last month in Parker County in North Texas. The mom has been charged with two first-degree felony counts of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury.