A 14-month-old girl has died in New York after her grandmother left her in a hot car for eight hours while she went to work. The toddler, identified locally as Chyasia Evans, succumbed to heatstroke after her body temperature reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit in the back seat of a red Jeep Cherokee parked in Smithtown, Long Island, on Monday.
Suffolk County Police said the 54-year-old grandmother intended to drop the child at a daycare centre but forgot and drove to work instead. Eight hours later, at around 4.20pm, she went to collect her granddaughter from the daycare, only to realise she had left her in the vehicle. The child was taken to Saint Catherine of Siena Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The high temperature in Smithtown on Monday was 83 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius), but temperatures inside a car can rise much higher. Chyasia's aunt told NBC that the baby's body temperature had reached 106 degrees, around seven degrees above the average for children and near the level at which infant mortalities occur.
Chyasia's mother, Jessica Watkins, paid tearful tribute at a candlelit vigil on Tuesday night, saying the last words she spoke to her daughter were 'I love you, princess'. The child's godfather, Derrick Rountree, launched a fundraiser for the family. Police said the death remains under investigation and no charges have been made.
According to the US Department of Transportation, about 40 children die of heatstroke in the United States each year after being left or trapped in a car. Over the past 25 years, more than 950 children have died in hot cars. Children are more vulnerable because their body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult's.
