2-Year-Old Girl Dies After Mother Forgot That She Left The Child In Her Car
The young girl was already unconscious when she was discovered by her mother four hours later.
By Tang Ruxyn — 15 Mar 2018, 11:04 AM
A two-year-old child has died after she was left for several hours in a car parked in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan yesterday, 14 March
According to Port Dickson district police chief Superintendent Zainudin Ahmad, the girl's mother brought her to work during the 9am incident.
The woman, who is a staff at a local college in Port Dickson, drove her Proton Saga to work.
When she arrived at the college car park, she left the car without her daughter.
The woman forgot about her child and only realised what happened about four hours later
"The 32-year-old woman only realised that she had left her daughter in the car at 1pm. She rushed to the car but found the girl unconscious," Zainudin was quoted as saying by New Straits Times.
It was learned that the woman rushed her daughter to the Klinik Kesihatan Port Dickson but the girl was pronounced dead there.
"The case was then referred to the Port Dickson Hospital," Zainudin added.
It was said that a sombre mood was felt at the hospital morgue yesterday, as family members and acquaintances consoled the woman who was feeling remorseful over her child's death
The woman had told a friend earlier that she carried her daughter, who was asleep in her house in Taman Hartamas, Sunggala, and placed the girl in the backseat of her Proton Saga, Berita Harian reported.
Upon arriving at the college, she immediately turned off the car engine and went into her office without remembering that she had brought her daughter along to work.
One of the woman's friend told Berita Harian that the woman would usually stick to her usual routine of sending her five-year-old daughter to a kindergarten before dropping off her youngest daughter to a nursery. She will only head to work after that.
"The incident is unexpected. She had sent her eldest child to the kindergarten but forgot that her youngest child was not sent to the nanny's house," the friend said.
She added that the woman may have been under pressure due to the heavy workload and also because the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate (LPM) paid a visit to the college yesterday.
Zainudin said a post-mortem will be conducted to investigate the cause of death
It is believed that the incident is a possible hot car death case, in which the girl is believed to have died of heatstroke.
The Malaysian Insight reported that the case has been classified as child abuse, under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act for negligence and exposing a child to injury. An offender faces a maximum fine of RM20,000 or a jail term of up to 10 years, or both, upon conviction.