According to the Miami Herald, a three-year-old child died Monday after being ‘mistakenly’ left in a hot car for eight hours outside a Miami daycare where both of his parents work.
According to the Miami Herald, Sholom Tauber was one of numerous children from the same family that attended the Lubavitch Educational Center, a Jewish daycare in Miami Gardens.
On Monday, temperatures were in the mid-90s Fahrenheit, with the heat index suggesting 103 Fahrenheit as the maximum temperature.
The unconscious child was flown by helicopter to Jackson North Medical Center, where he was declared dead.
According to NBC Miami, the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner verified Tauber died of hyperthermia and heat exhaustion and labelled the death as accidental.
According to Local 10, the boy’s father, Rabbi Menachem Tauber, was interrogated by authorities to determine whether the occurrence was accidental. Nehama Tauber, his wife, also works at the day care, but it is unclear if she was scheduled to work on Monday.
Authorities suspect the Rabbi forgot about his son after arriving at the daycare on Monday.
Later that day, at 3 p.m., the father hurried to his car after learning that his son hadn’t been seen all day at the daycare. According to the Herald, the infant was already presumed deceased.
‘This tragedy hits close to home, and many in our school community have been affected by it. No words can capture the heartbreak and sadness we feel,’ Rabbi Benzion Korf, the center’s dean, said in a short statement issued late Monday.
Korf said a therapist and grief counselor would be available for staff and students at the center on Tuesday.
‘Our deepest sympathies are with the family at this time of great loss,’ Benzion Korf wrote. ‘We ask the community for their prayers and to respect the family’s privacy as they grieve.’
Police are also considering requesting a warrant to gain access to the daycare’s video cameras or any security footage in the neighbourhood in order to investigate the event.
It is unknown how many of the victim’s family members are still enrolled at the daycare.
According to the National Safety Council, Florida has the second-highest number of hot automobile related deaths in the United States, after only Texas.
Since 1998, there have been 99 hot vehicle deaths in the Sunshine State. That’s little more than four every year on average.
The investigation into the boy’s death was still proceeding as at Tuesday afternoon.