PA - Samaria Motyka, 4, dies after being left in hot car, Williamsport, 22 July 2016

Williamsport officials told WNEP the woman who takes care of the girl usually drops the child off at daycare in the morning. But on Friday, instead of dropping the girl off, she apparently went straight to work. When she came out at the end of the day, she found the girl unconscious in the car, officials said.

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A prolonged heat wave is blanketing much of the United States, with dangerously high temperatures believed to be responsible for at least seven deaths, including that of a 4-year-old girl.

The girl died in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, after being left for hours in a hot car as temperatures hit 97 degrees, police told ABC affiliate in Scranton WNEP.

There have also been five heat-related deaths since Wednesday in Roseville, Michigan, where temperatures soared into the high 80s and low 90s. Roseville Fire Chief Mike Holland told the Macomb Daily that five people have died from heart attacks or breathing difficulties, all linked to weather over the past three days.

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RT51 said:

I think there is more to the story. 4 year olds are chatty. They are very hard to forget that they are in the car with you. I find it strange that no one noticed as I'm sure a 4 year old would be screaming, banging on the windows, etc.

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StarrChance said:

I was left in a hot car by a baby sitter when I was 5 years old (she went into a club to play pokies...don't get me started!) Looking back I also believe she was a drinker.

Such a vulnerable age, she told me to not open the doors or talk to anyone, so that's what I did! I remember becoming extremely hot, flushed, confused and crying. A man walking past saw me and somehow convinced me to open the door, next thing I remember he had me over his shoulder, (the whole club staring) marched into the club and extremely angrily told my sitter what he thought! Police should have been called but times were different then.

Thinking back now how close I was to passing out and so lucky the stranger was a kind man.

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Lycoming County coroner Charles Kiessling Jr. said an autopsy done Saturday couldn't identify a definite cause of the death of Samaria Motyka. Williamsport police agent Raymond O. Kontz III said toxicology tests are expected to take several weeks.

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According to noheatstroke.org, a site containing research compiled by San Jose State University Professor Jan Null, 20 hot car deaths have been reported in the United State so far this year, including Friday's death in Williamsport.

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Of the deaths since 1998, 54 percent of those were due to a caregiver forgetting them in a car. In 29 percent of the cases, a child was playing in a car and got stuck in side. And 17 percent of cases were intentional, Null's research suggests.

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The woman responsible for leaving 4-year-old Samaria Motyka alone in her car for hours during one of the hottest days of the summer, resulting in the child's death, told police she had "forgotten the kids in the past" before being arraigned for involuntary manslaughter and other charges Thursday.

Many other details about the tragic death of the child - including the identity of the woman responsible for leaving her in the car - have been released in a city police affidavit. But some of the details may create more questions for people wondering how it could have happened.

Brittany Renee Borgess, 28, of 2630 Highland Ave., South Williamsport, has been in a relationship with William Motyka, Samaria's father, for three years, police said.

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When Borgess got to her 2-year-old son's day care, she reached over Samaria to get him out of his car seat and told her to tell her brother goodbye before taking him into the building around 8:45 a.m, police said.

Borgess' normal routine would have been to take Samaria to her day care in South Williamsport, but she instead drove straight to her workplace where she parked the car, picked up a few things from the passenger seat, exited the vehicle and locked the doors to start her work day with the child still in the backseat, police said.

Borgess told police that Samaria was silent during the eight-minute drive from her brother's day care on Dewey Avenue to her work and she forgot that Samaria was inside of the vehicle until she returned to it after work at 3:30 p.m.

Borgess also said that this wasn't the first time she left one of the children in the car, telling police about a time when she had showed up to work with all three kids still in the backseat.

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Han said:

So it sounds like Borgess left Samaria in the car when she dropped her own child at day care. That could help explain forgetting Samaria when she reached work.

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bluesneakers said:

Manslaughter charges for woman who left child, 4, in car on hot day



[snip]



Much more at the link.

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RT51 said:

I think there is more to the story. 4 year olds are chatty. They are very hard to forget that they are in the car with you. I find it strange that no one noticed as I'm sure a 4 year old would be screaming, banging on the windows, etc.

Click to expand...