A man left his autistic daughter inside a hot car because she was “throwing a fit” in a store, said police in Arkansas.
Srinivasan Jeyvel, 43, was arrested on a charge of endangering the welfare of a minor after two Good Samaritans allegedly spotted the girl inside the vehicle at the Ashley Square Shopping Center and contacted the police at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 6.
The girl was left in the vehicle for approximately 20 minutes after a woman and a security guard noticed the child, the report said.
Officers spoke to Jeyvel, who told them that she was only in the vehicle for a few minutes.
He also said that she was “severely autistic” and was “throwing a fit” in the store, forcing him to leave her inside the vehicle.
The daughter was checked out by emergency personnel before she was released into the custody of her mother, the report said.
Hot Car Death Figures
Heatkills.org, citing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that when outdoor temperatures range between 80 and 100 degrees, the interior of the car can get to 130 to 172 degrees.“Children have died in cars with the temperature as low as 63 degrees. Basically, the car becomes a greenhouse. At 70 degrees on a sunny day, after a half hour, the temperature inside a car is 104 degrees. After an hour, it can reach 113 degrees,” stated Jan Null, adjunct professor at San Francisco State University, according to the website.
“Even the best of parents or caregivers can unknowingly leave a sleeping baby in a car,” the website warns, adding that “the end result can be injury or even death.”
“In an overwhelming majority of child vehicular heatstroke deaths, it was a loving, responsible parent that unknowingly left the child,” the organization says.
By contrast, the organization notes that 13 percent of parents “knowingly left” children in cars, while 27 percent of the remaining deaths involved children who got into vehicles on their own.
Another 4 percent died under unclear circumstances.