KUALA LUMPUR – A 2-year-old girl died yesterday after she was left alone in a vehicle for eight hours.
The incident occurred in Ara Damansara, near here, after the mother forgot to drop off the child at kindergarten.
Petaling Jaya district police chief, Mohamad Fakhruddin Abdul Hamid, said the incident occurred at 3.40pm.
He said police received a distress call that the victim was unconscious in a house in Ara Damansara.
“Initial investigations revealed that the mother had dropped off two of her other children about 7am at a school nearby.
“After that, she proceeded to the child’s kindergarten.
“However, when she arrived, she received a call, believed to be about her online business, and later forgot to drop the child,” he said.
The mother then went home.
Fakhruddin said she only realised her child was unconscious in the car at 3.35pm.
“The victim’s father called for help and provided first aid to the victim while waiting for the ambulance.
“The victim was then rushed to the Sg Buloh Hospital, where she was declared dead,” he added.
He said the case is being investigated under Section 31(1) of the Child Act 2001.
This is the third such incident in the last two months.
Last month, a 16-month-old baby girl died after she was found unconscious in a car at a public university in Kuala Nerus, Kuala Terengganu.
Initial investigations revealed that the victim’s father had forgotten to send the baby to the daycare centre at the university campus before going to work at the same university.
In early October, an 8-month-old baby girl died after she was left in a car parked at the Canselor Tuanku Muhriz Hospital in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.
The girl was mistakenly left in the vehicle when her mother, a doctor at the hospital, went to work thinking that she had already sent the child to a daycare centre. – The Vibes, November 9, 2023