Authorities ID toddler who died after he was left in car
Authorities on Sunday identified the toddler who died Saturday after being left in a hot car for four hours.
Police said Liam Ordonez, 3, was accidentally left in the car at his home on the 10000 block of Tempestuous on Saturday afternoon.
He and his family had arrived home about 1 p.m. after a T-ball game, officials said. Liam’s parents each thought the other had taken him out of the car. About 5 p.m., they realized they hadn’t.
“This very literally can happen to anybody, and that’s the most tragic thing of it all,” San Antonio police spokesman Jesse Salame said Saturday. “There’s not anyone who has been a parent to a toddler that hasn’t almost made this mistake.”
The boy’s parents, who haven’t been identified, tried to resuscitate Liam. He was unresponsive when they found him in the car. When police arrived, they pronounced the child dead at the scene. The medical examiner’s office did not release a cause of death.
Temperatures on Saturday peaked around 93 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. On an 80-degree day, the temperature inside a car can reach 125 degrees in one hour.
Before Saturday, the last child to die accidentally in a hot car in San Antonio was 6-month-old Dillon Martinez in August 2016. In that case, the baby’s father was supposed to drop him off at day care. The father was running late to work and wasn’t usually the one to take Dillon to day care, police said. He drove to work and forgot the infant in the car.
The district attorney’s office ruled the case accidental.
To prevent child deaths, experts suggest several tips:
Always look in the back seat, then lock the vehicle so kids can’t get inside on their own.
Keep a stuffed animal in the child’s car seat when it’s empty. When the child is put in the seat, move the stuffed animal to the front seat as a visual reminder.
Put a cellphone, briefcase or purse on the floor of the back seat when the child is put in the car seat so that the driver has to look there before leaving the vehicle.