Child found dead in car outside Plantation preschool, investigation underway
Police found a child dead in a car outside a Plantation preschool at 5:39 p.m., launching a death investigation at the A World of Discovery Academy lot.
A child was found dead inside a vehicle outside A World of Discovery Academy in Plantation Monday afternoon, turning the preschool lot at 7025 Northwest Fourth Street into a death investigation. Plantation police and paramedics responded around 5:39 p.m., and Plantation Fire Department crews located the vehicle and pronounced the child dead at the scene. Crime scene tape surrounded the lot near Northwest Fourth Street and 70th Avenue as investigators worked around a black SUV.
The school told parents that an emergency involved a school parent and child, but said it did not involve school operations, students or staff and that the campus remained secure. The daycare owner asked for privacy and respect for the grieving family and the school community. As of Monday night, officials had not released the child's age, cause of death or whether charges would be filed. The owner said the father arrived to pick up his 1-year-old son and learned the boy had been marked absent and had never been dropped off earlier in the day.
In Broward County, child-care providers fall under the state Department of Children and Families' Southeast region. Florida DCF requires a written emergency preparedness plan, procedures for accounting for children, parent reunification and communication steps, and current attendance records during drills or emergencies; the agency also requires providers to report incidents that threaten children's safety, including the death of a child. For centers that transport children, a driver must keep a log and a second staff member must complete a physical inspection and visual sweep to make sure no child is left in the vehicle.
Safe Kids Worldwide puts a child hot-car death at about every 10 days, and more than half of those deaths involve a caregiver who forgot the child was in the vehicle. The National Safety Council puts the average at 38 children under 15 a year, and the National Weather Service says pediatric vehicular heatstroke is the leading cause of non-crash vehicle deaths among children and can happen quickly even on a mild day.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
