Three-year-old dies in Ashdod after being locked in car for hours

Police investigating after child found in critical condition in vehicle; deaths of toddlers forgotten in cars a recurring scourge in Israel

A three-year-old child died after being left in a car for several hours in the southern city of Ashdod, the city’s Assuta Medical Center announced Saturday evening.

Paramedics who extracted the child from the closed vehicle in the afternoon said he was found in critical condition, having lost consciousness and suffered a heatstroke. Police said in a statement they found the child in a locked, parked car after being notified he had been missing since noon.

According to the Ynet news site, police investigators found the car did not belong to the child’s parents. Police said they were investigating “the circumstance leading up to the child’s absence and injury.”

Toddlers dying after being forgotten in vehicles is a repeated occurrence in Israel, where temperatures in locked cars can soar to 160°F (70°C), which can prove dangerous to children even over brief periods.

According to the Beterem – Safe Kids Israel organization, between 2010-2020, 34 babies and children in Israel died after they were left unattended in parked and locked cars.