1-year-old boy dies after being left in hot car

LEXINGTON, Massachusetts (WFXT) – Authorities in Massachusetts are investigating the death of a baby found in a hot car.

Emergency crews were called to a Lexington daycare center on Tuesday after a one-year-old boy found unresponsive inside a vehicle.

According to Lexington police, the mother believed the child had been dropped off at Sol-Solecito Daycare that morning.

Sol-Solecito owner Nelly Mayorga said the deceased child was a student at the center but did not show up there.

Mayorga said their policy is that if a child is not there by 8:45 a.m., a message is sent to the parents asking about the child's whereabouts.

This step was taken, but the daycare center reported that it had not received a response from the boy's mother.

Later that evening, Mayorga said, the boy's mother showed up to pick up her child.

However, she became agitated when the team told her he wasn't there.

Mayorga said the mother then ran to her car after staff asked where her son could be if he was not at daycare and she found him unconscious.

The boy, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“It's just so sad. It's just one of those horrible things that you hear about. It makes my stomach sink just thinking about it,” said Jason Fligg, another father who lives at the daycare.

Authorities said the incident is still under investigation, but if the mother did indeed forget to drop her child off at daycare, the child would have been in the car all day.

“If you think about it, you have a small child sitting in a rear-facing car seat. You can't see them from the driver's seat and you can't hear them because they all fall asleep as soon as you start driving,” said Amber Rollins, director of child and automotive safety. “It's something you just don't recover from.”

The Chief Medical Examiner's Office will determine the child's cause of death.