http://www.wfaa.com/localnews/stories/082103dnmetchilddeath.266c5796.html
Boy forgotten in hot vehicle found dead
Day-care center driver turns himself in after 8-month-old's death
11:56 AM CDT on Thursday, August 21, 2003
By MICHAEL GRABELL / The Dallas Morning News
DUNCANVILLE – Dallas police on Thursday were questioning the driver of a day-care center van in connection with the heat-related death of an 8-month-old Dallas boy, who was left for most of the day in the back of the vehicle.
Police said the boy, Jordan Thomas, appeared to have died from heat-related trauma.
It was the second time in three months in which a child in the care of day-care workers has died in a hot vehicle.
“You still have a lot of hot weather left. This is hopefully a wake-up call for parents and day-care centers that it’s dangerous and to take it seriously and pay attention,” Sgt. Hollis Edwards said Thursday. “This happens way too often.”
Jordan, whose parents have not been identified, was picked up from his home at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday by the driver, police said. At 2:30 p.m., the boy's grandmother went to the T&T Tots Day Care & Learning Center in the Red Bird area to pick up the child, who was not there.
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Sgt. Edwards said the day-care center called the driver, who then discovered the boy about 3:30 p.m. while he was parked at Central Elementary School in Duncanville, waiting to pick up other children.
Police declined to release details about the vehicle's location between the time the child was picked up and when he was found.
The driver, whose name was not released, flagged down a police officer and told him a child in the back of his vehicle was not breathing.
The driver turned himself in to Duncanville police. No charges have been filed. Dallas police spokeswoman Janice Houston said the case is likely to be referred to a grand jury.
Tonya Scott of Duncanville said she was picking up her niece and nephew at the school when the man realized that the baby was in the back of his vehicle. She said the man was frantic.
"He was totally disturbed, totally disturbed," Ms. Scott said. "He was hitting his head on the concrete, rolling around on the ground. They had to calm him down."
Ms. Scott said she and another woman tried to perform CPR on the child, but it was too late.
Investigators were collecting evidence from the vehicle late Wednesday. The Dallas County medical examiner pronounced the child dead at the scene and will perform an autopsy.
Temperatures hit 90 degrees across the Dallas area by 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. The day's high at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was 99 degrees.
At Executive Airport in Dallas, temperatures were slightly lower, but the heat index was a consistent 102 to 103 degrees across the region. A heat advisory is in effect until Thursday evening.
On May 30, Alan Devon Brown was left in a day-care van for two hours before workers realized he was missing. He died four days later.
Two workers and a dozen children at Little Dudes and Daisies Daycare and Learning Center in Lancaster were returning from a trip to a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant when 2-year-old Alan was left in the van on a day when the temperature hit 100 degrees. The center has since closed. Day-care director Onetha Kizzee Conners, 48, and employee Jimmie Ree Smith, 42, were indicted Tuesday on injury to a child charges.
On July 11, Mafi Manu, 3, died in her family's unlocked minivan as temperatures hit 96 degrees and heat indexes topped 102. The minivan was parked outside the Hurst family's home. No charges were filed in the incident, in which police determined that the girl had climbed into the vehicle.
The Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services' child-care licensing division, which regulates day-care centers, will begin an investigation of the Duncanville incident Thursday, said Marleigh Meisner, an agency spokeswoman.
T&T Tots Day Care & Learning Center, which was first licensed in 1996, is owned by Beulah Sherrard of Dallas.
Ms. Sherrard could not be reached, and day-care employees declined to comment.
In 2002 and 2003 inspections, investigators found several violations. Most were related to record keeping, and none pertained directly to supervision.
Jacole Lewis, the parent of a 3-year-old who attends the center, said she would take her son back there Thursday.
"Accidents happen," Ms. Lewis said. "It's a very good day care. When I come to get my son, he's fed, he's taken care of, he's not running around, he's disciplined. Being a single mom, I'm confident they're taking care of my son."
Chantinekia Williams, 22, who has three children in the day care, wasn't so sure.
"I want to know what's going on," she said. "Right now, I'm a little nervous."
Linda Bell, a former worker at T&T Tots, said she was surprised by the news that a child from the center had died.
"It was hard to believe," Ms. Bell said. "I hate for that to happen. I know ... [Ms. Sherrard] loved those kids. ... She spent her money on that day care."
Officials warn anyone taking care of children to be careful in the heat.
"Count how many kids you've got going in, count how many kids that go out, double-check. Do everything you can to be sure that you've got everyone out of that vehicle," said Duncanville city spokesman Keith Bilbrey. "It's very dangerous. ... It can reach extreme temperatures inside the vehicle."
Terrill Struttmann, executive director of Kids In Cars, said deaths in hot cars are avoidable. The nonprofit agency based in Missouri works to educate people about the dangers of leaving children alone in and around cars.
So far this year, he said, about 35 children have died in hot cars.
"I think it's a lack of knowledge," Mr. Struttmann said. "The vehicle acts as an oven, and temperatures rise quickly. A lot of people don't realize that children's systems can't dissipate the heat like an adult's."
Staff writers Jaime Jordan, Terri Langford and Ian McCann and Dallas Web staff writer Kimberly Durnan contributed to this report.
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