A 9-year-old girl has died in Harris County after being left alone in a vehicle for approximately eight hours as temperatures exceeded 100 degrees, according to reports.
The girl’s mother called the police after returning from a nine-hour work shift. She had reportedly left the child in the car with a bottle of water and the windows partially rolled down. The girl was unresponsive when authorities arrived, CBS News reported.
The mother was arrested after 2 p.m., and the case is under investigation by law enforcement.
“Maybe she has to make ends meet and keep food on the table and work. But the risk of death or harm — there’s just no reconciling that in my mind. You’ve got to make other arrangements. It’s not worth it to put a child at risk like this, for any particular reason,” said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
“A 9-year-old beautiful little girl has lost her life by no fault of her own,” Gonzalez said, according to the New York Post.
The sheriff encouraged struggling families to seek help through neighbors, relatives, or social services.
“It is just not worth it to put a child at risk like this,” he said.
According to safety experts, approximately 37 children die each year from heatstroke after being left in hot vehicles.
“Children have a larger surface area compared to their mass. They also tend to dehydrate more quickly and have a higher metabolism, so they are making a lot of heat,” said Dr. Genon Wicina, a pediatrician with the Cleveland Clinic Children’s. “Even for just a few minutes in a car, they are going to heat up three to five times faster than an adult would,” News 4 JAX reported.