Toddler dies in hot car as mom teaches inside school

USA TODAY

PANAMA CITY, Fla. — An 18-month-old died Tuesday in an elementary school parking lot after her mother inadvertently left the girl in the back seat of the car while she went inside to teach, authorities said.

Jamie Buckley of Panama City, Fla., did not discover her daughter, Reagan Buckley, until the end of the school day around 3:15 p.m. CT, according to a press release from Frank McKeithen, Bay County sheriff. Reagan was still in her car seat and was pronounced dead at the scene.

She had been in the car in the parking lot of Cedar Grove Elementary School since before 7:30 a.m., he said.

Temperatures in the area Tuesday rose to 83 degrees and were about 70 degrees at 7 a.m., according to Weather Underground.

Temperatures inside a car parked in direct sunlight can reach 130 degrees and higher, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. At 83 degrees outside, even with a window rolled down 2 inches, the inside temperature can reach 109 degrees in 15 minutes.

The death is at least the third child death from heatstroke so far this year, according to the advocacy organization KidsAndCars.org.

• On May 12, a 16-month-old girl died in Lake City, Fla., after Florida Department of Law Enforcement had said her father, public defender Young Kwon, forgot to take her to day care, discovering the child around 3 p.m. ET. The case remains under investigation.

• On April 20, Alpha Koryor, 2½, was left in his father's sedan in Phoenix for several hours. James Koryor was accused of drinking and was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and child endangerment.

Since the 1990s more than 700 children, many of them infants and toddlers in car safety seats, have died from heatstroke after being left in the back of a car or sometimes climbing into an unlocked hot car and not being able to get out, according to KidsAndCars.org.

"Our hearts and prayers are with the family and the school," Superintendent Bill Husfelt of Bay District Schools told the Panama City News Herald.

No charges have been filed in the case. Reagan's body has been turned over to the Bay County Medical Examiner's Office, and the investigation is continuing, the sheriff said.