3-Year-Old Dies After Being Left In Hot Car Outside School Where His Parents Worked

Miami Gardens, Florida, -- A 3-year-old Florida boy died after being left inside a hot car parked outside an elementary school where his parents worked, reports said.

The incident happened at the parking lot of Lubavitch Educational Center, a Jewish school in the Miami Gardens neighborhood where the boy's parents worked as teachers. The child, identified as Sholom Tauber, was found unresponsive inside the parents' vehicle at around 3.45 p.m. Monday. The emergency officers tried to revive him, but he later died at Jackson North Medical Center, NY Daily News reported.

A medical examiner's report ruled the child's death was accidental and was caused by hyperthermia.

Investigators believe Tauber's father, who drove the vehicle, accidentally left the boy locked inside while the rest of the family made their way to the school. Tauber was one of the several children from the same family who attended the school.

He was trapped inside the vehicle for around six hours while the temperature outside climbed to 103 degrees. The father hurried out to the car after someone alerted him that the child was not seen at school. The boy was unresponsive by then, Miami Herald reported.

Police have not filed any charges against the father.

"We are beyond devastated that we experienced an accident on the Lubavitch Education Center (LEC) campus today involving a private vehicle, which resulted in the untimely passing of the 3-year-old son of two staff members. This tragedy hits close to home, and many in our school community have been affected by it. No words can capture the heartbreak and sadness we feel," the school's Dean said in a statement.

According to data collected by Kids and Car Safety, over 1,000 children have died in hot cars since 1990, with an average of 39 deaths every year. Around 56% of these deaths were caused after the children were accidentally left inside locked vehicles.

Florida has the second-highest number of hot car deaths in the country after Texas, according to reports. Tauber's death was the 11th fatality in 2022 and the second in July.