Orlando Day Care Worker to Face Charges After 3-Year-Old Boy Dies in Van

Orlando Day Care Worker to Face Charges After 3-Year-Old Boy Dies in Van
Ambulance waits outside a hospital.(Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)
Jack Phillips
8/9/2017
Updated:
8/9/2017

A 3-year-old Florida boy died after he was left in a day care van for about 12 hours on a hot summer day, and now, a worker is being charged.

Myles Hill spent all day in the van outside the Little Miracles Academy before someone found him on Monday night, Aug. 7. Detectives believe that the boy died of heat exposure, as temperatures reached a high of 94 degrees Fahrenheit in Orlando on Monday, according to The Associated Press.

“This is an absolute tragedy that could have been prevented,” Orlando Police Chief John Mina said.

The driver, who was not named, is reportedly cooperative.

The boy, who would have turned 4 this month, left the day care at around 9 a.m. and was headed to another center a few miles away, Mina said. But the child never got out of the van.

“It is believed Myles was in the van, the hot van, all day long since 9 a.m.,” Mina said, according to a video of his press conference.

Florida Department of Children and Families records show the Little Miracles Academy was found to be not in compliance with a rule requiring day cares to maintain logs of the time children arrive and leave, AP reported.

“We have that same information that the day care was cited,” Mina said. “We’re looking at that as well.”

He asked drivers to remember to do a head count of the children they’re taking care of. 

“Please ensure that we are checking our vehicles for our kids,” Mina said. “It just takes a minute. … You’ve got to do something.”

At a candlelight vigil, the mother remembered her young son, as she fought back tears.

“My baby is 3 years old. He’s 3,” Chiel Banks said of her now-deceased child. “He’s going to be 4 on the 22nd of this month and he’s not going to have a birthday.”

“When he was little, he would say, like, ‘Oh, mommy, that’s the sky,’ like he knew everything,” she said, WFTV reported “So I used to always call him my baby genius, cause he knew everything. So, I want justice for my baby.”

According to a report, this year, 29 children have died of heatstroke after being left in vehicles.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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