FORT SMITH, Ark. — According to Fort Smith police, a 3-year-old child died after being left in a hot car on Tuesday, Aug. 16.
Police say around 2 p.m., officers were called to the scene and were there for about three hours. Police say an "undisclosed person" allegedly had to break the car window before taking the child to a nearby hospital. Later, the child was pronounced dead. have confirmed the body has been sent to the state crime lab for an autopsy, which is standard procedure, and that the incident reportedly happened near a home on Boone Avenue.
5NEWS spoke with the National Weather Service and it confirmed the official temperature at the time was 100 degrees with a heat index of 104.
5NEWS also spoke with an adjunct professor of meteorology who specializes in the dynamics of how hot cars can get. He says the last pediatric vehicular heatstroke death in Arkansas was in Booneville in July 2020 with the current incident being the 19th in Arkansas since 1998. He also says an infant or small child's body cannot cool itself off like an adult's would, but that it heats up three to five times faster.
“In the first 10 minutes a car is closed up, the temperature rises by 19 degrees. So let's say on a 100-degree day or 100 plus degree day like it is in Fort Smith, today….you know you’re at about 120 degrees in 10 minutes," said Jan Null, San Jose State University Adjunct Professor of Meteorology.
Fort Smith police and the Crisis Intervention Unit responded to the hospital. Fort Smith detectives are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident as they wait for the medical examiner to finish the autopsy.
According to the Sebastian County Prosecutor, Dan Shue there is no decision yet if any charges will be filed. He said the case is still under investigation.
No other information has been released at this time.
We will update this article with more information as it becomes available.