Baby dies after being left in car by mistake

An eight-month-old baby boy has died after being left in a car for more than eight hours by mistake when his guardian forgot to drop him at daycare.

The baby was found in the car on Wednesday at about 4.30pm after his guardian had driven to the ABC Academy daycare in Hammond, Louisiana to pick him up.

When the guardian couldn’t find the baby at the daycare, she found him still in his car seat in the back of her car.

‘The guardian has been very cooperative and working with detectives. She’s obviously distraught,’ Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards said.

The woman thought she had dropped the baby off about 8am, but he apparently spent the day in the car outside the woman’s workplace in Hammond, about 20 miles northeast of New Orleans.

Temperatures there hit 90 degrees Wednesday. 

At that temperature outdoors, a car’s interior can reach 136 degrees in an hour, University of Georgia researchers have found.

Panepinto said the case would be turned over to prosecutors once the investigation is completed.

She said that people should arrange for childcare providers to call if a child doesn’t show up; to make a habit of checking front and back seats before locking a car door; and to create reminders for a child’s presence, such as leaving their purse or briefcase in the rear seat or leaving a stuffed animal in view.

‘This is the first case for the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office where a child had died as the result of being left inside of a vehicle and we want it to be the last,’ she said.