Missouri baby dies after 15 hours in hot car, police say

TO CLOSE

Studies show that hot cars can become deadly in just one hour for children and domestic animals trapped inside.
UNITED STATES TODAY & # 39; HUI

A Missouri baby died last weekend after being left in a hot car for 15 hours, police said.

The first responders tried to revive Josiane Eichelberger, 11 months old, Sunday afternoon, but it was too late. His death adds to more than 800 similar victims suffered by children left in cars similar to ovens since 1998, according to NoHeatStroke.org.

Police in Calverton Park, a suburb of St. Louis, pledged to work with the St. Louis County Attorney's Office to thoroughly investigate his death, according to FOX 4 in Kansas City.

Calverton Park's public information agent, Chris Robertson, told FOX 4 that the afternoon temperature had reached about 79 degrees and that the interior of the car could have been much warmer.

& # 39; Against the law & # 39 ;: A woman arrested after the toddler called 911, reports that he and 6 others remained alone in a hot car

"It's heartbreaking to lose a life, especially when you're dealing with a child so young," he said.

The baby's grandmother said that she had discovered the girl inside the vehicle in the driveway. Family members said that Joseline was left in the car because each of her parents thought the other had taken her away.

"Nobody would do it intentionally," Lilly Belfield, a cousin of the family, told FOX 4. "If you saw her smile, laugh, laugh, you'd think the same thing."

According to Jan Null, Assistant Professor of Meteorology at San Jose State University, an average of 38 children die each year in hot cars. Last year, a record 52 children died.

Earlier this year, Null told USA TODAY that, aside from car accidents, heat stroke is the leading cause of death in vehicles of children 14 and under.

Fatal facts: Study: in just one hour, hot cars can reach deadly temperatures, similar to those of an oven

The temperatures inside the cars can reach 130 degrees, even when the outside temperatures are much lower, because direct sunlight heats the objects inside the car. The body's natural cooling methods, such as sweating, begin to go out once the body's internal temperature has reached about 104 degrees. Death can occur at 107 degrees.

Children are particularly vulnerable in hot cars. They have trouble escaping alone from a hot vehicle and their respiratory and circulatory systems do not support heat as well as that of adults. More than 50% of children who die in a hot car have a parent or guardian who forgot the child in a vehicle.