A 2-year-old boy was found dead in an overheated car in Cobb County, Georgia, on Tuesday night, officials said Wednesday, marking the sixth death in 2024 attributed to an overheated car.
According to Cobb County police, the child was found unconscious in a parked vehicle at around 5:36 p.m.
He was taken to Kennestone Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
“This is an example of what can go wrong, but there’s more,” Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer said at a news conference on Wednesday. VanHoozer urged the public to “be really, really, really careful in this heat.”
According to a police press release, no charges have been filed yet and there is no evidence that the child was left in the vehicle.
Police said they did not know how the child got into the car or how long he stayed there.
This screenshot from a video shows cars parked in the sun.
WSOC
According to ABC affiliate KSAT, San Antonio police and Metro Health used dummies to demonstrate how hot it can get inside a car on Monday. KSAT reported that the temperature inside the vehicle had already reached 110 degrees after the car had been parked for just 15 minutes.
This police demonstration came in response to an incident Friday afternoon in which three children were rescued by a Good Samaritan from a hot car in San Antonio, Texas.
The one-month-old, two-year-old and four-year-old boys were trapped in the car for about 50 minutes, police said.
“A few minutes in a hot car is a recipe for disaster,” Amber Rollins, director of child and auto safety, told ABC News. “Minutes can literally mean the difference between life, death or severe brain damage for a child sitting alone in a hot car.”
The National Weather Service confirmed that temperatures in San Antonio reached 99 degrees that day.
Police confirmed that the mother was present at the scene and “stated she went into a store and did not realize how long she was gone.” She was arrested on three counts of child abandonment and endangering a child, according to police.
After the passerby called the police, the children were successfully freed from the vehicle and taken to a local hospital, where they are expected to make a full recovery.
This screenshot from a video shows a car window partially rolled down.
WSOC
Since 1998, more than 900 children have died in overheated cars, the federal government reports.
According to Kids and Car Safety, 25 states have Samaritan Protection laws that “protect citizens from liability when they break into a vehicle to rescue a person or pet.” Since the risk of death increases with each minute spent in a hot car, citizens may be encouraged to act as quickly as possible without fear of retribution.
Rollins acknowledged that these incidents are not always due to negligence.
“The deaths and injuries of children in overheated cars are widely misunderstood by the public, and the majority of parents believe that such a thing would never happen to them,” Rollins said in a statement Wednesday.
Rollins spoke to ABC News about a dangerous situation that almost happened to her son, even though she has been in the profession for 12 years and is often asked how to prevent such incidents.
She explained that the lack of sleep combined with a change in routine caused confusion and caused her to take a wrong turn.
“My son made a screeching noise in the back seat and then I realized he was with me, but I had completely lost sight of him,” she said. “These small changes that seem completely harmless and uneventful can be a trigger if the right circumstances are present.”
So far in 2024, there have been six deaths from overheated cars, all reportedly involving children.
“Eighty-eight percent of all victims (in overheated cars) are children aged three and under,” said Rollins. Children are particularly at risk because their “body temperature rises three to five times faster than that of an adult.”
This news comes just before the Fourth of July holiday, when the number of child accident fatalities skyrockets and the risk of backing up and rollovers increases.
According to data from Kids and Car Safety, “July 4th was the deadliest holiday weekend in 2023 for children in terms of non-traffic-related deaths.”
Rollins stressed that parents must take all necessary precautions to protect their children. Not only does the holiday weekend pose a threat, but the persistent high temperatures will also continue to put children at risk, she said.
— ABC News’ Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.
