PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Data shows that Florida ranks second in the nation in the number of children who die in hot cars.
A 2-year-old in Port St. Lucie became the latest victim Monday after being left alone in a hot vehicle for five hours.
Jason Webb has a stool in his garage, where he watches all the kids in the neighborhood, including his own, head to school each morning.
He said he saw his neighbor, James Fidele, 37, leave Monday from his home on Southeast Aires Lane, then return home, where he has a T-shirt printing business, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
However, according to an arrest affidavit, at about 1 p.m., five hours after first returning home, Fidele realized he had left the 2 year-old boy, the youngest of five living in the Port St. Lucie home, in the vehicle alone.
He called police, but it was too late.
Fidele told investigators he was using his girlfriend's SUV to drop off their five kids at school and forgot to drop off the 2-year-old.
Fidele was arrested on a felony of leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle causing great bodily harm.
Ronda Cerulli runs Safe Kids Treasure Coast, a program dedicated to preventing unintentional injuries.
One lesson is "kids and cars," focusing on car seats and car safety.
Florida is second in the nation for heatstroke related child fatalities.
"About 54% of those children are left unintentional, 28% gain access to the vehicle on their own and about 17% are left intentionally in the car," Cerulli said. "Someone is running into the store or someone is in the driveway and someone is home."
Cerulli said one piece of advice is to put something in the back seat that you need.
"Simply lay your cellphone on the seat next to the child," she said.
If you have toddlers who like playing hide and seek, Cerulli said make sure they can't get inside your vehicle.
"If you make it a practice keeping your keys high and out of reach, they can't gain access to the car," she said.
It's also important to note that a vehicle can heat up very quickly. It only takes 10 minutes to heat up 19 degrees. So, on a hot day like Tuesday when it's 87 degrees inside a vehicle, it's already 106 degrees.
When the child in this tragedy was taken to the hospital, his temperature was 107 degrees.
The arrest affidavit said there is a safety mechanism in the SUV that Fidele was driving which reminds drivers to look in the rear seat.
