3-year-old Texas boy dies after parents 'accidentally' leave him in hot car after returning from older brother's tee-ball game
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: A young Texas boy died this past Saturday, September 21, after his parents mistakenly left him inside their car when temperatures were soaring outside.
Liam Ordoñez, 3, was left in the car after he had come back to his home in the 101000 block of Tempestuous, San Antonio, with his parents after attending a tee-ball game where his six-year-old brother played, according to the San Antonio News-Express.
The family had come back home at around 1 pm, and while the parents removed the older son from the car, they forgot to do the same for their younger child. By the time they realized their mistake around 5 pm, he had been left alone in the car for over four hours.
They found him to be unresponsive, and despite the best efforts of medical professionals, he could not be saved. He was declared dead at the scene.
Speaking about the incident, Lt. Jesse Salame with the San Antonio Police said that each parent had thought that the other had gotten the boy out of the car and that they immediately administered life-saving measures when they got him out of the car. "This really was just a case of parents who just got distracted," he explained. "They discovered him unresponsive in the vehicle, pulled him out and began life-saving measures. But were unsuccessful."
"It appears what we have here is just a horrific tragedy," he added.
The interior temperatures of a car can exceed that of the outside by up to 50 degrees, and the National Weather Service reported that the temperatures that day reached a high of 93 degrees, which meant Liam had endured temperatures of up to 143 degrees. Furthermore, the interior temperature can climb up to 80% of the total temperature rise—in this case, up to 115 degrees—in the first 30 minutes.
Salame confirmed that homicide detectives are investigating the case but insisted that it did not mean that police considered Liam's death a crime. He said a decision on whether to bring charges against the parents will be made after their investigation is complete.
Liam is the 43rd child to die in a hot car this year, and the sixth in Texas alone, according to Kars4Kids, a non-profit that tracks such deaths.