A New Jersey man has been charged after his infant son died from being left in a hot car.
On Thursday, March 20, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced in a press release that 35-year-old Moshe Ehrlich of Lakewood was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
According to the prosecutor, officers from the Lakewood Township Police Department were dispatched to a residential area in the township at around 1:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday, March 18, after receiving a report about “an infant inside a motor vehicle in distress.”
When police arrived, personnel from a volunteer medic group were administering “lifesaving aid” to Ehrlich’s 4-month-old son. The baby was quickly transported to Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus, where he was pronounced dead, according to the release.
An investigation by the Lakewood Township Police Department, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit determined that the baby — whose name has not been made public — had been left alone in Ehrlich’s car for “an extended period of time.”
Ehrlich turned himself in at the Lakewood Township Police headquarters and was taken to the Ocean County Jail on March 20.
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Cases of hot car deaths in the U.S. are unfortunately common. NoHeatStroke.org, an organization that studies vehicular heatstroke deaths, has reported that around 37 children under the age of 14 die from being left in a hot car each year.
In most cases, a child is left in the car unintentionally. Parents or caregivers change their routine — maybe a mom takes the child to daycare instead of the dad — and forget that their child is in the back seat.
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Although AccuWeather reports that Lakewood reached a high of only 62 degrees at the time of the incident, it’s common for car temperatures to rise by more than 10 to 20 degrees in the span of just minutes, creating a dangerous environment for children left alone.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that it is never safe to leave children unattended in a car in any weather, even with the window cracked open. To remember that a child is in the car, the CDC recommends keeping a stuffed animal in the child’s car seat on days when they are not in the vehicle, and moving the stuffed animal to the front passenger seat when the child is there as a reminder.
Other suggestions include placing purses or bags in the back seat by the child, or even one shoe, so parents are sure to check before leaving the car.
According to court records obtained by PEOPLE, Ehrlich is next due in court on April 28. It is not immediately clear if he has legal representation to comment on his behalf.
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