Police were investigating the death of a 7-month-old girl who was in the back seat of a car her father was driving when he noticed she was in distress Wednesday evening.
Authorities said it appears the baby had been left unattended in the car for a period of time and that the father only realized she was in the back seat after he was driving.
The man pulled into a shopping plaza on the northwest corner of East Grant and North Country Club roads and called 911, said Sgt. Chris Widmer, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
Tucson Fire medics were called to the scene at about 5:20 p.m. and began administering aid to the child. The baby was taken to the University of Arizona Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
It was not immediately clear how long the infant had been in the car. Detectives were at the hospital late Wednesday interviewing the parents.
Capt. Barrett Baker, a Tucson Fire Department spokesman, said the 911 call the agency received was that the baby had been left in the car all day.
He said when paramedics arrived at the shopping center, the baby was “unresponsive.”
Widmer said the father told police he was driving the Nissan Versa and looked back and saw his child was in the back seat, then stopped and summoned help.
Widmer said the man told police the baby was in the car for an “extended period of time.”
The high temperature in Tucson was 89 degrees and the humidity was 26 percent, the National Weather Service said.
According to kidsandcars.org, a national organization that promotes the safety of children in and around vehicles, about 38 children die each year from being left in hot cars. The organization said there have been 28 deaths this year, with 44 deaths reported nationally in 2013.
About 500 children have died in the United States from being left in hot vehicles since 2000, according to the group.
