Lexington baby left in hot car dies

A baby girl who was found unresponsive Saturday inside a hot car parked on a residential street in Lexington died Sunday morning at University of Kentucky Hospital, according to the Fayette County coroner's office.

Police were called Saturday afternoon to 2976 Candlelight Way and found 5-month-old Holland Judy of Lexington inside a car about 3 p.m. The temperature was about 85 degrees at the time, which was the high for the day.

Holland was rushed to the hospital and regained consciousness shortly before 6 p.m., police said. She died about 6 a.m. Sunday from hyperthermia, or heatstroke, the coroner said.

The death is being investigated as an accident, according to the coroner's office.

Officers with the Crimes Against Children Unit and Forensic Services interviewed the child's mother Saturday afternoon, Lt. Richard Bottoms said. Police have not released further information about their investigation.

According to Kentucky law, a person may be charged with second-degree manslaughter if he or she wantonly causes the death of a child younger than 8 by leaving the child in a vehicle. Second-degree manslaughter is a Class C felony.

Reporters hovered Sunday afternoon on Candlelight Way as neighbors drove past the duplex where the incident occurred and asked questions about the child's condition. It appeared no one was at the home Sunday afternoon.

Holland was the 15th child in the United States this year to die from hyperthermia after being left in a hot car, according to research by Jan Null, an adjunct professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University.

Null's Web site says that at least 33 children who were left in cars died of hyperthermia last year and that 460 have died since 1998. Ten of those children were from Kentucky.

Just more than half of the children were forgotten by caregivers, according to Null's research. An additional 30 percent were playing in unattended vehicles, and 18 percent were intentionally left by an adult, according to her examination of media reports.

Holland's death came exactly a year after the last heatstroke death of a child in a car in Lexington. April Knight, 2, died June 20, 2009, after she was left in a car on North Upper Street. She had spent the day at Jacobson Park with her grandparents and other children, then returned to the grandparents' home.

The grandparents thought a younger child was getting April out of the car. Two hours later, they found April still inside the vehicle.

Experts recommend that parents never leave a child unattended in a vehicle for even one minute and to call 911 if a child is seen unattended in a hot vehicle.

To avoid forgetting a child, experts recommend a caregiver keep a stuffed animal in the car seat. When a child is put in the seat, the animal should be placed in front with the driver. They also recommend putting a purse or briefcase in the back seat as a reminder that a child is in the car.

Heatstroke occurs when a person's temperature exceeds 104 degrees Fahrenheit. A core body temperature of 107 degrees is considered lethal.

Null's study of vehicular hyperthermia found that children can die in relatively mild temperatures of about 70 degrees when left in a car. The temperature inside a car can rise 29 degrees in 20 minutes during warm weather.

This story was originally published June 21, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Lexington baby left in hot car dies."