Couple Arrested After Leaving Child in Hot Car

Couple Arrested After Leaving Child in Hot Car
(ChiccoDodiFC/Shutterstock)
Bowen Xiao
3/19/2018
Updated:
3/19/2018

A hot car incident involving a child nearly turned fatal.

A couple in Houston, Texas, are facing charges after they allegedly left their 4-year-old child alone in a car on Saturday, March 17. Meanwhile, the pair ate at a restaurant.

Deputies with Constable Mark Herman’s office were called to the scene. The calls were about a child being left inside a locked vehicle, ABC13 reported.

Emergency medical services told deputies that the windows in the vehicle were cracked open slightly when they arrived at the scene.

That’s when the mother, identified as Brenda Hurtado, ran up to them and grabbed the child from the car.

Authorities said the 4-year-old was found limp, unconscious, and extremely sweaty, according to ABC13. Emergency services provided medical care to the child.

It’s unclear what the child’s current condition is. Authorities did not say whether it was a boy or girl.

Temperatures on that day in Houston reached highs of 81 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Accuweather.

“Brenda Hurtado and Antonio Hurtado were arrested and charged with child endangerment,” Constable Mark Herman stated.

Deputies told ABC13 that the family was together in the restaurant at one point in time. Until the father, Antonio Hurtado, reportedly placed the child back in the car for it to sleep, before he went back inside the restaurant.

Brenda claimed that the child had been left in the vehicle for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Their bond was set at $1000.

So far in 2018, one child has died from vehicular heatstroke in the United States. In 2017, a total of 42 children died from it, according to noheatstroke.org.

The average number of child heatstroke fatalities in vehicles have been 37 per year, since 1998.

A noheatstroke.org examination of 700 media reports on vehicle heatstroke deaths between 1998 and 2017 found that 54 percent of children were forgotten by their caregiver. While a lower 18 percent were intentionally left in the vehicle by an adult.

From NTD.tv
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Bowen Xiao was a New York-based reporter at The Epoch Times. He covers national security, human trafficking and U.S. politics.
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