On Saturday, July 29, the Phoenix fire department got a call reporting an injured child on 28th Street and Broadway Road. They were quick to respond, discovering a one-year-old boy inside a car. Unfortunately, they were too late. The child, Josiah Riggins, was accompanying his father to church but was left inside the car for several hours, according to the New York Daily News.
What led to the accident?
The father came out of the church and was devastated to find an unconscious Josiah in the car parked in the Parking Lot. The paramedics arrived and declared the child died from extreme temperatures.
After further investigation officials found that the father of the boy had forgotten Josiah in the car. No charges have been filed against the father.
Both the parents have been very cooperative during the whole process of the investigation while facing such a great personal loss. Zeltica Mitchell, a relative of the Riggins family said that it is devastatingly sad to lose ones’ child due to such negligence and it is a tragedy which can occur in any family, according to the Arizona Republic.
Second such incident in a month’s time
This is the second such incident which has been reported in the space of two days. The other one took place in North Phoenix on Friday, when a 7-month-old baby boy was left alone in a hot car by his aunt and her boyfriend.
Zane Endress was found unconscious inside the vehicle on 44th street and Greenway Road by the rescue team and was pronounced dead on the spot. Apparently, the aunt and her boyfriend had forgotten the baby in the car.
According to reports around 600 children have died in similar circumstances since 1990 in the USA. In most of the cases, either the caretaker of the child had forgotten the infant in the car or the child may have entered the vehicle without the guardian's knowledge and ended up being locked inside the hot vehicle for several hours.
The consequences of leaving a child in a hot car
Medical experts have stated that when the body temperature reaches 104 degrees inside these vehicles, the most vital human organs start shutting down on their own. As the temperature reaches 107 degrees or above, an adult human body experiences heat stroke, which can also result in death.
In most cases of negligence, the person who was accompanying the child faces charges against them and at least eighty percent of them are convicted. Sgt. Mercedes Fortune has pleaded through The Arizona Republic for "parents to take some time out and look in the car" before they start driving or go anywhere to avoid such major tragedies.
