2-year-old dies in Eilat, was apparently forgotten in hot car

Boy found lifeless in southern resort city, where temperatures hit 102°F on Tuesday

By ToI Staff 24 August 2021, 9:29 pm

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Illustrative: A Magen David Adom ambulance seen outside the Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem, on December 13, 2018. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

A 2-year-old boy was found lifeless on Tuesday in the southern resort city of Eilat, after he was apparently left in a car in the scorching heat.

He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police launched an investigation into the incident.

Temperatures in Eilat, one of the hottest cities in Israel, hit 39°C (102°F) on Tuesday.

Last month, a three-year-old girl died after she was apparently left in a car in northern Israel.

New regulations had been set to take effect this month requiring the installation of an electronic alarm system on the child car seat that will automatically alert parents if a child is left behind in the chair, but the Knesset last month delayed it, at new Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli’s request, until March 2022.

Michaeli said at the time that there needed to be “the proper infrastructure” in place before the regulations came into force.

According to the Beterem child safety activism group, from 2010 to 2020, 35 children died from being forgotten or trapped in vehicles in Israel, out of over 800 recorded incidents.