By Gary Taylor
Orlando Sentinel
Copyright 2007 Orlando Sentinel
OCOEE, Fla. — The Ocoee toddler who died after being left unattended in a hot car was the third such death in Florida in the past four months — which places the state among the top in the nation for such accidents.
“This kind of death is unacceptable,” said Michele Struttmann, director of the Missouri-based Kids in Cars. The nonprofit group said Tuesday’s death followed child fatalities in Port St. Lucie in June and in Southwest Florida’s Alva in August.
In Ocoee, police said Wednesday that they have yet to decide whether to seek charges against the mother, a city employee. They had not released the names of the child or her parents.
“It’s under investigation,” Detective James Berish said.
Just hours after the Ocoee accident, two tourists from France were arrested and their 3-year-old daughter placed into state care after she was left unattended in a car at an Orlando Wal-Mart.
Gererd Sterne, 52, and his wife, Chetrit, 45, were taken into custody Tuesday night after deputies were called to the parking lot by customers. The customers had alerted Orange County Fire Rescue about a girl who was strapped into a child seat with the windows rolled up.
One witness reported seeing a man and woman get out of a Chrysler PT Cruiser, wave to their child and then walk into the store, Deputy Gloria Morris said in an arrest report. A surveillance video shows the car was parked in the lot at 8:47 p.m.
The shopper said the girl had her arms outstretched and was calling out to people who passed the car.
The Fire Department was called at 9:12 p.m. and arrived seven minutes later. Firefighters used a tool to open the car and retrieve the child, who was warm to the touch but did not appear to be sweating, according to the report.
About 9:40 p.m., Gererd Sterne returned to the car and was arrested. Deputies then went inside the store and found his wife near the registers and arrested her. Both are accused of child abuse.
In the Ocoee incident, the mother was supposed to take her 22-month-old daughter to a day-care center on her way to work, a task normally handled by the child’s father, who was out of town but returned to the area Wednesday, Berish said.
But instead of dropping the child off, the woman followed her routine and drove to City Hall on North Lakeshore Drive, forgetting the child, who was strapped in a safety seat behind her, Berish said.
When the mother returned to her vehicle around lunchtime, she found the youngster inside, passed out. She took the child into the building, where co-workers helped cool the girl and called for emergency help.
The child still had vital signs when she was removed from the car but was pronounced dead later at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando.
The death was the 26th in the nation this year involving a child left in a hot car, according to Kids in Cars. Florida, California and South Carolina lead in such deaths, with three each. Mississippi and Louisiana have two each.
Children are very susceptible to the heat — especially inside a hot car, experts say.
“Basically, the child goes into heat stroke,” Orange County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Marianne Nuckles said. “Under those conditions, an adult can process the heat better, but a child will just stop sweating and his core temperature will continue to rise. It won’t take long for them to overheat, maybe 15 minutes, before everything shuts down.”
Under a new Florida law that took effect July 1, anyone who leaves a child younger than 6 years old alone in a car for more than 15 minutes without the engine running can be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor.
If the child is injured, the adult can be charged with a third-degree felony, which is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Walter Pacheco of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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