The sun
Image: NASA for Unsplash

A one-year-old child has reportedly died after being left in a hot car parked outside a hospital for nine hours in Washington, USA, CNN reported.

According to the police report in the country, the foster mother of the child arrived at the hospital for work around two in the morning and in a hurry to get to work, she forgot her child in the car without knowing it until she finished work at around ten o'clock in the evening on her way home.

When she opened the car door, she realized she had left her child in the car all afternoon, the car was in the sun and unfortunately, the child was dead, according to Puyallup Police Department information officer Don Bourbon.

 

The child was rushed to the hospital, but could not be revived, Bourbon told CNN. The temperature that day was between 70 and 75 degrees, but the temperature inside the car when the child was found was around 110 degrees, police said.

The foster mother and family are cooperating with the investigation and no charges have been filed, police said.

The incident marks the fourth child heatstroke-related death in cars this year, according to noheatstroke.org, which said an average of 38 children under the age of 15 dying in hot cars each year in the United States, most of them during the summer months.

 

In 2018 and 2019, a record 53 children died each year from being left in a hot car, according to the National Safety Council.