One-year-old found dead in hot car outside day care, St. Pete police say

One-year-old found dead in hot car

Ariel Plasencia reports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A one-year-old boy died after being left in a car for several hours on Wednesday, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.

The child was found unresponsive in the backseat of the car, and had been there all day, police said. His father had come to pick him up from daycare moments before the child was discovered.

"The father had the child in the morning and – it was not part of their routine – took the child to an appointment with him," SPPD spokesperson Yolanda Fernandez said.

After that, the father was supposed to take the one-year-old to daycare and then head home to his work-from-home job. Fernandez said around 5 p.m., the father got back into his car and drove to the parking lot of the Bayfront Health Child Development Center off of 6th Avenue South.

"The father went in to try to pick the child up, but the daycare said, ‘you never dropped him off.’ So at that point, then the father kind of realized what was going on and went back out to the car," Fernandez said.

Emergency responders tried to perform CPR on the little boy, but the child was pronounced dead on scene. Investigators believe he had been in the car all day.

An autopsy is being performed. No charges have been filed.

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"In just ten minutes, it can become 20 degrees hotter inside a vehicle with the doors closed," St. Petersburg Fire-Rescue Division Chief of Rescue Lindsay Judah said.

According to FOX 13 meteorologists, Wednesday hit a record high of 91 degrees. That’s about 10 degrees hotter than what we typically see this time of year.

According to the national non-profit, Kids and Car Safety, Florida ranks second behind Texas in hot car child deaths from 1990-2023. Two-thirds of those devastating deaths in Florida happened when the child was unknowingly left in the vehicle.

Earlier this year, lawmakers passed Ariya’s Law – named after 10-month-old Ariya Paige who was left inside a vehicle by a babysitter in Baker County. This law encourages local governments to sponsor public awareness events and aims to increase awareness about hot car deaths.

The babysitter’s trial began this week, according to our news partners in Jacksonville.

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St. Petersburg Fire-Rescue told FOX 13 the last time we saw one of these deaths was 2017.

"We also want to make sure that they create reminders for themselves, such as putting the child's shoe in the front seat, their stuffed animal in the front seat. Making sure that they have reminders, such as their vehicle, that prompts them to look in the back seat," Judah said. "That is our action that we're asking our parents and caregivers to take. Take action."

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