CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Tuesday, a 9-month-old died after being left in a car in Beeville on the hottest day of the year so far. This is the second death of a young child left in a hot car as on Monday, a 22-month-old was left in a car for around five hours outside of Tom Browne Middle School.
The reaction to the story has been intense and mostly negative with many readers questioning the mother's actions.
3NEWS wanted to know how a family handles such a tragedy especially when they are exposed to hundreds of negative comments and accusations on social media.
We talked with a mother from Arizona who's daughter died a few years ago in a hot car.
Angela Jones lost her 3-year-old daughter Charlotte, 'Charly' for short, in 2019.
"He [Jones' husband] brought all three girls in the car with him, dropped the older two off at school, and came back home with Charly in the car seat in the back of our truck," Jones said. "And when he pulled into our driveway he didn't realize she was still in the backseat when he got out of the car because normally she would not be there."
The grief for both parents was hard to bear.
"He ran out to get her but it was too late, she had succumbed to heat stroke. Vehicular heat stroke," she said. "It was a day that I never thought in my nightmares that this would ever happen to our family."
Besides overwhelming guilt, the Jones family had to endure negative comments on social media posts about the tragedy.
"Just thinking how, why, how, how can this be happening? How is this happening? And we were able to survive through these, we're coming up on five years," Jones said. "September third will be five years, by all the support we have had."
She said all it took was a change of routine that made her husband forget and led to the tragedy.
Jones has since partnered with a group called 'Kids and Car Safety' who is petitioning the National Highway Transportation Safety Advisory Board to pass a rule forcing car makers to install a simple sensor that will detect a human in the backseat even if the car is not on.
3NEWS asked Jones what she would tell a parent who has suffered the loss of a child like this.
"I tell them, I would say, just remember that you have a huge support system. To not listen to those who are judgmental because they just don't understand," she said.
To find out more about Kids and Car Safety, visit their website by clicking here.