WASHINGTON — A 3-month-old has died after being left in a hot car in Northwest D.C. Tuesday evening.
Medical officials responded to Park Road NW just after 6:10 p.m. after a report of a child being locked in a Honda Accord. Upon arrival at the scene, officials found a baby boy unconscious and unresponsive, out of the car. It is not known how long the baby was in the car.
The infant was taken to Children's National Medical Center for life-saving measures to be taken. Unfortunately, the infant was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. Police later identified the baby as Aaron Boyd Jr.
The Office of Unified Communications (OUC) is currently investigating the incident.
"The [OUC] expresses our sincere condolences to the family who lost their infant on August 9, 2022, after a call was placed for an infant locked in a car and then was updated to an infant in cardiac arrest," Chief of Staff Kelly Brown wrote in a statement to WUSA9. "OUC will release the findings of our investigation when it is completed."
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is performing an autopsy to officially determine the cause and manner of death.
On Tuesday, D.C. experienced highs of 96 degrees. In just 10 minutes, a car can heat up by 20 degrees and become deadly. It is unknown how long the infant was left in the vehicle.
There have been 14 other children who have died in hot cars so far this year across the country. Since 1998, over 900 children have died from heatstroke because they were left or became trapped in a hot car. According to the United States Department of Transportation, a child's body temperature can rise three to five times faster than an adult's.
A child can die when their body temperature reaches 107 degrees.
There have been 13 officially reported pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths in 2022, according to noheatstroke.org.
According to the website, the District had one pediatric death related to vehicular heatstroke from 1998-2021. During the same time period, Virginia had 29 while Maryland had 14 pediatric deaths caused by hot cars.
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