3-year-old dies after being left alone in hot car for hours

A 3-year-old child, Sholom Tauber, died after accidentally being left inside a car unattended for hours in the parking lot of a South Florida preschool on Monday.

The boy's parents also work at the same school in Miami Gardens where the tragic incident occurred. His death has been ruled an accident by the medical examiner.

The police said that the child was left inside the vehicle by his father, who did not realise his son was missing until late in the afternoon. He went to look for him after his colleague at the Lubavitch Educational Center asked where the boy was.

The boy was discovered unresponsive in the car and was immediately rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. According to Miami-Dade Medical Examiner, the cause of death was hyperthermia or overheating of the body.

"We are beyond devastated that we experienced an accident on the Lubavitch Education Centre (LEC) campus today involving a private vehicle, which resulted in the untimely passing of the 3-year-old son of two staff members," said Rabbi Korf in a statement.

"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," he added. The school has also appointed a therapist and grief counsellor for its staff and students.

This is not the first time that such an incident has been reported in Florida. The state has reported 108 such incidents since 1992, per CBS News.

According to NoHeatStroke.org, there have been 10 adolescent deaths this year alone from heatstrokes caused by being left inside a car. In a similar incident reported in Danielsville, Georgia, a 1-year-old girl died after being left in a car in the sweltering heat for hours last month.

The experts advise against leaving children in cars unattended since the temperature inside the vehicles is always higher than the temperature outside, and leaving children alone in such conditions can prove fatal.

"CR testing found that even when it was 61° F outside, the temperature inside a closed car reached more than 105° F in just 1 hour, an extremely dangerous and potentially fatal level for a child," according to a study by Consumer Reports.