Toronto father charged with abandoning daughter in freezing parked car

Just a reminder to terrible parents out there, leaving a child locked in a freezing car is as bad an idea as leaving them locked in a hot one. It wouldn't seem like it needs to be said, considering the bitter winter Canada has suffered through, but there it is.

At least one Ontario father allegedly needs the reminder after being accused of abandoning his daughter alone in a store parking lot for more than 40 minutes.

York Regional Police confirm that a 39-year-old Toronto man has been charged with child abandonment after allegedly leaving his two-year-old daughter in a parking lot near Markham Road and Kirkham Drive, Tuesday evening. The address belongs to a Costco shopping centre.

Emergency crews pulled the child from the car and she was found to be unharmed.

With temperatures in Markham reaching as low as -15 C on Tuesday, and wind chills making it feel like -26 C, there was concern that a child left alone for that long could suffer from exposure to extreme weather.

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"We want to remind people not to, under any circumstances, leave animals, children or the elderly inside vehicles unattended, especially under extreme weather conditions," Const. Laural Nicholle told Yahoo News Canada. The father will appear in court Feb. 26.

Over the past months, there have been several reports of children being abandoned in freezing conditions, including a 22-month-old Oklahoma child being left for seven hours, and a Maryland mother leaving her four year old in a car while she went to the casino for eight hours.

The issue seems to come up more frequently in the summer, when parents feel like they can slip away for a moment and leave their child alone in the heat.

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This summer, an Ontario grandmother pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death after her two-year-old grandson died from being left alone in hot car.

An Edmonton family suffered a similar loss when a three-year-old girl was found unconscious after slipping into the family car. She later died in hospital.

During the summer, warnings and alerts have become common. The Canada Safety Council says heat stroke can occur when a child is left alone for 20 minutes on a hot day. But the dangers are just as serious in winter. The Drive Steady advocacy group says children left in cold cars can suffer frostbite, and can quickly develop hypothermia if their body temperatures drop below 35 C.

Just to repeat: Leaving your child alone in a parking lot is bad, whether it is summer or winter. Leaving your child alone in the spring and fall are also tough decisions to defend.

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