1 child dead,
another hospitalized after being found in hot car
Tuesday, July 25th 2017, 6:59 pm PDT
PORTALES, N.M. (KFDA) -
A
Portales infant has died and a second child has been hospitalized after
being left in a hot car this afternoon.
According to the Eastern New
Mexico News, Portales Police responded to a call around 3:00 p.m. for what
was described as infant children who were left in a hot car.
The
children were transported to Roosevelt General Hospital. One child has died,
and the other remains in the hospital.
There is no further
information about how long the children were in the car at this time.
A NewsChannel 10 employee who has been in contact with the family has
confirmed that this is the current situation.
This is a developing
story, and NewsChannel 10 will continue to update the story as information
becomes available.
Two daycare
workers arrested in child's death
July 26, 2017
PORTALES — One child died, another is in
critical condition and two Portales daycare workers have been arrested for
leaving the children in a hot vehicle for about 90 minutes on Tuesday
afternoon.
Sandi Taylor, 31, and her mother Mary E. Taylor, 67, are
charged with child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and child abuse
resulting in death, officials said. Both were held in Roosevelt County
Detention Center without bond on Tuesday night.
Officials did not
immediately release the names or ages of the children, but said one died at
Roosevelt General Hospital and another was transferred to a Lubbock-area
hospital. “We don’t know if she’ll make it or not,” Assistant District
Attorney Brian Stover said late Tuesday.
A Portales police news
release said police responded to the in-home daycare on South Avenue C at
3:25 p.m. Tuesday for a report of two children having seizures. They found
two children not breathing and began lifesaving attempts.
Stover said
police believe Sandi Taylor took six children to a local park, while Mary
Taylor stayed at the home with four other children. When Sandi Taylor
returned to the daycare, she took four children inside and left two in the
vehicle.
“The worker was intending to go back and get (the two left
behind), but she got distracted by something — she doesn’t know what — and
then began to fill out some paperwork,” Stover said. “They put the children
down for naps and did not notice the two missing at the time. A short time
later, they realized it and found the children and began to attempt
lifesaving procedures and called 911.”
Stover declined to release the
ages of the two children, but said neither was old enough to get out of a
car seat without assistance. He said the children were not related.
Portales’ temperatures were in the mid-90s on Tuesday, the National Weather
Service reported.
The Kids and Cars safety organization reports an
average of 37 children die each year in hot cars in the United States. Most
are age 3 and under.
Neither Stover nor Police Lt. Chris Williams
could remember a child dying after being left in a vehicle in the
Clovis-Portales area in recent years.