5-Year-Old Child Dies After Being Left Inside Hot Car For Several Hours Outside Home

A 5-year-old child died after being left inside an SUV car for several hours Tuesday afternoon in Virginia. The temperature outside at the time was 93 degrees.

Officers arrived at the family's house in Springfield after receiving a report that "a child was left in a car and found unresponsive," the Fairfax County Police said on Twitter. The child was rushed to a hospital but he was declared dead there.

"Officers responded here for what was reported as a tragic accident, and at this point, I don't have any reason to doubt that," Fairfax County Police Lt. John Lieb said at a press conference, ABC affiliate WJLA reported. "The circumstances that led up to that child remaining in the child safety seat are still under investigation. Our heart breaks for this family."

Police said the boy arrived home with a parent and "young" siblings Tuesday afternoon but he remained inside, strapped to his car seat. It remains unclear why the child did not exit the car.

"Early information suggests the child could have been in there for up to several hours," Lieb said.

Officers reached the home within minutes after receiving the 911 call, but despite performing CPR, the child died.

"An autopsy will be conducted to confirm cause and manner, but I do suspect based on the preliminary findings and the high degree of heat that certainly played a factor in the child's very tragic passing," Lieb said.

Martha Meade from AAA Mid-Atlantic, an organization that provides road safety assistance, said a child dies in a hot car every nine days.

"The heat right now is oppressive, and there's just no room for error," Meade said, adding that a lapse in judgment in such conditions can cause someone's death.

"In ten minutes, the temperature in a car can raise 20 degrees, but at 104 degrees body temperature, organs start to shut down," Meade said, according to WHSV. "A child's body heats up about three to five times faster than our adult bodies do."

Virginia saw 28 hot car deaths from 1998 to 2020, in which victims were aged 14 years old or younger, according to NoHeatStroke.org, a nonprofit that tracks child hot-car deaths.