Baby dies inside car parked in affluent Connecticut town
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 15-month-old boy has died after being left inside a car parked in an affluent Connecticut community in sweltering summer weather, police said on Tuesday. The death, which occurred on Monday in the town of Ridgefield, comes weeks after a Georgia father was charged with murder for leaving his 22-month-old son in a hot car for seven hours in a case that has drawn national headlines. It was unclear whether anyone had been arrested connection with the Ridgefield fatality, about which police have released few details. "It was reported to police that the infant was left unattended inside a parked vehicle for an extended period of time," the Ridgefield Police Department said in a statement. The dead child was discovered at about 6 p.m., police said. A cause of death has not been determined. Police declined to answer questions surrounding the death, including how long the child was left in the car and whether a window was rolled down. Temperatures in the area on Monday reached 87 degrees by 2 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. Each year, some 38 children die in the United States from heat stroke after being left in hot vehicles, according to the safety advocacy group Kids and Cars. Many caregivers unknowingly leave sleeping babies inside the cars, the group said. (Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Sandra Maler)
