Florida child dies after being left unattended in hot car

A 3-year-old Florida child is dead after being left inside a hot car during 90-degree heat in a school parking lot.

Fox News reports the tragedy is the first child hot car death in the Sunshine State this year but takes the toll to 11 American children who died in 2022 because they were left in hot cars.

The child attended the Lubavitch Educational Center in Miami Gardens and his father is a rabbi who works at the center.

Local Fox affiliate WSVN reports that the boy was unresponsive when he was found and later was pronounced dead at a local hospital. An investigation is open and ongoing.

According to the Associated Press, the center's dean, Rabbi Benzion Korf, said in a statement "This tragedy hits close to home, and many in our school community have been affected by it" and "No words can capture the heartbreak and sadness we feel."

Amber Rollins, director of Kids and Car Safety said that death was "'Horrible - and yet we expect it."

She continued, "We know it's going to happen, we know there's going to be more families out there now who have precious children with them alive, happy, healthy and before the end of the summer they're not going to have them. It's just devastating because we know there are effective solutions out there readily available, and [they're] not being used."

Rollins said the solution is "Occupant detection" technology that "uses motion, radar, LIDAR (light detection and ranging), carbon dioxide sensing and more to detect the presence of a person inside a vehicle."

President Biden offered a similar solution in 2021 with a provision in "The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act." The infrastructure legislation mandates that new cars be built with audio visual (AV) alerts that check on the back seats.

Rollins told CNN in 2021 that Biden's provision was "a technology that quite frankly will be completely inadequate at addressing the issue."

The law doesn't specify the nature of the alert, such as if it goes off if it detects a child in the backseat, or if it's a box of clothes left behind. And the law doesn't specify how and when the alert necessarily goes off.

Kids and Car Safety reports an average of 38 instances per year where children die because adults leave them unattended in hot cars.