A three-year-old boy died after his mum “forgot” he was in the back of her car and left him unattended for several hours in 80F heat to go to work.
The youngster is said to have been left alone in the vehicle for six hours before anyone realised. The tragedy happened yesterday in the municipality of O Porrino, near the city of Pontevedra, in Spain’s northwest Galician region.
The town hall announced overnight it was declaring three days of mourning and held a minute’s silence at midday today. A local festival was also suspended following the tragic news.
Local reports said the unnamed mum had “forgotten” to leave the youngster at his nursery school before going to work.
She is said to have parked her car at about 10am yesterday by her workplace in Torneiros, and left her son asleep in a child seat in the back of the vehicle.
The alarm was raised at about 4pm, with local reports saying the child’s dad had called her after going to the nursery school and discovering the youngster wasn’t there. Emergency responders rushed to the scene but were unable to do anything to save his life and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy will now take place to determine exactly when he died. Local reports said he had been left with a jacket on because although daytime temperatures in the area had risen to around 27C (80F) it had been chilly in the morning.
Civil Guard officers in Pontevedra could not be reached today for comment on the case. The child’s mum is understood to be receiving expert counselling.
O Porrino Town Hall said in a statement before the minute’s silence was held: “Today at 12 noon a minute’s silence will be observed in the town hall square.
“Festivites scheduled for this weekend have been suspended out of respect.
“The flags on the town hall will fly at half mast and the full council session due to be held today has been called off.
“Mayor Alejandro Lorenzo expresses his most sincere condolences in his name and that of the entire council and offers the youngster’s family all the support they need at this difficult time.”
In August 2018 a 10-month-old baby girl died in the Majorcan town of Manacor after her grandfather left her in the back of his car for eight hours in temperatures of up to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) after forgetting to leave her at a nursery school.
He found her dead when he returned to the vehicle after running errands several hours later. The unnamed man later accepted a year’s prison sentence in March 2020.
