2-year-old Arizona girl dies in hot car on 111-degree day; father says he left the AC on
An Arizona girl died after she was found unresponsive in hot car Tuesday amid record-breaking temperatures in the state.
According to the Marana Police Department, the girl was found in the Paseo Rancho Acero neighborhood outside of Tucson, which is about 100 miles south of Phoenix.
Police executed resuscitation efforts, and the child was taken to a local hospital, where she was determined to be dead.
The 2-year-old girl's father reportedly told police that he left her in the car with the air conditioner on. When he returned, the vehicle was off, and the child was unresponsive, leading him to call 911, KOLD reported.
Temperatures in the Tucson-area on Tuesday reached 111-degrees by late afternoon.
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The death is under investigation, police say
Parts of Arizona have issued excessive heat warnings with temperatures regularly reaching the 110s.
“He left the child in the car. The car was running; the AC was operational,” Captain Tim Brunenkant told the outlet. “We are trying to determine how long he was in the house, at what time the car may have shut off or the AC stopped working.”
Brunenkant added that criminal charges have not been filed, but police are conducting interviews "to determine if this was a mistake," per the report.
According to a news release from Kids & Car Safety, a nonprofit organization, an estimated "47 children have died in hot cars in Arizona, making the state 4th in the country when it comes to child hot car deaths."
Tuesday's incident marks the first hot car death in the state this year, the organization said.
Where hot car deaths occur the most in the U.S.
Since 1998, only two states – Alaska and Vermont – have not seen at least one child death in a hot car. Texas leads the nation with 155 since 1998, according to KidsandCarsSafety.
Contributing: Janet Loehrke
Taylor Ardrey is a Trending News Reporter for USA Today. You can reach her at tardrey@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2-year-old girl dies in hot car near Tucson, Arizona
