A toddler in east Dallas has become the 21st child to die in a hot car this year in the U.S., according to the national safety advocacy organization KidsAndCars.org.
That figure is nearly twice as high as the number of children who died by this time last year, the organization reports. When CNN last published a story June 9 about hot car deaths, 11 children had died this year by that time. That means that 10 more kids have died in a little over a single month this summer.
On Sunday afternoon, with temperatures in the 90s, the child’s father noticed that the boy wasn’t in his children’s Bible service class, according to CNN affiliate WFAA.
Reng Om, a member of the Dallas Matu Christian Church, told WFAA that the boy’s father went to his car, found the boy inside and carried him into the church, shouting that someone should dial 911.
Paramedics performed CPR and rushed the boy to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
On Friday, 4-year-old Samaria Motyka died in a car in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where the temperature rose to 97 degrees, according to the Lycoming County Coroner’s Office, which is conducting an autopsy.
A woman who takes care of the girl usually dropped her at daycare in the mornings but on Friday the woman drove to work, the affiliate said, citing officials’ account. At the end of the woman’s workday around 3:30 p.m., she returned to her car and found the girl unconscious, police told CNN affiliate WNEP.
Emergency responders tried to revive the child, who died at a hospital.
