The Texas heat and someone’s negligence have taken another life in north Texas this week. This comes less than a week after a similar event occurred in Oak Cliff. A toddler died on Sunday after being left inside a hot care for over an hour. Emergency personnel were called around 3 p.m., when the temperature was reaching around 101 degrees.
Apparently, a family had spent the afternoon at a water park and on returning, members had forgotten to remove 16-month-old Markus Lewis. Somehow, young Markus was left behind to die in the veritable oven that is a hot car in the Texas summer.
“The mother went out to the van, and that’s where the child was—inside the van with the windows up,” Sgt. Griggs of the Denton County Sheriff’s office said. “The child was unconscious.”
Although emergency workers began CPR and arrangements were made to fly Markus to a hospital, ultimately, nothing could be done. It was too late. Markus was taken to Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, where he was pronounced dead. Officials have still yet to determine if his parents will face charges of negligence.
It seems as though every year another child is left in a hot car in north Texas and killed. We believe that in order to effectively combat this growing threat, we must raise awareness within the community. Hopefully then people will realize that one death in a hot car is too many.
