In less than a day, two separate events in Texas resulted in the tragic loss of two young children who were left in hot vehicles. These incidents, one involving a nine-month-old in Beeville, Texas and the other a 22-month-old in Corpus Christi, Texas, have prompted renewed discussions about child safety in vehicles, especially during the intense summer heat in Texas.
The incident in Beeville, Texas, which is approximately 100 miles southeast of San Antonio, involved a nine-month-old child who was left in a car by their grandmother for nearly eight hours. According to the Beeville Police Department, the child was found unresponsive in a child safety seat in the grandmother’s vehicle at around 4 p.m., having been in the car since around 8:30 a.m.
Despite the grandmother’s immediate call for help upon discovering the child, attempts to revive the infant were unsuccessful. The Beeville police are being assisted by the Texas Rangers and the Department of Public Safety in their ongoing investigation.
The previous day, a similar incident involved a 22-month-old toddler, Harley Adame, in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Corpus Christi Police Department reported that the child’s mother, Hilda Adame, a middle-school teacher, forgot to drop Harley off at daycare before going to work. Consequently, Harley was left in a parked SUV outside the school from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. as outdoor temperatures rose into the triple digits.
Upon realizing her error, Hilda Adame rushed to the vehicle, retrieved Harley and took her to the school’s nurse’s office where CPR was attempted. Tragically, Harley could not be saved by the time medics and police arrived.
The Corpus Christi police are treating this incident as a criminal homicide and arrested Hilda Adame, 33, on charges of injury to a child and abandonment. Adame was released on bail the morning of Wednesday, September 4 after bail was lowered to $50,000 during a hearing on Tuesday, September 3.
These two incidents increase the total number of child hot car deaths in Texas this year to three, with the first death occurring in July. As per data from Kids and Car Safety, a minimum of 27 children have died in hot cars across the U.S. in 2024 alone. With at least 157 child fatalities from hot cars recorded between 1990 and 2023, Texas has the highest number of such deaths in the nation.
Dr. Jan Null, a meteorologist who has studied vehicular heatstroke extensively, emphasizes the danger of leaving a child in a hot vehicle, even for a short duration. “Temperatures inside a vehicle can reach lethal levels within just minutes, especially in places like Texas where summer heat can be extreme,” Dr. Null explained. “These deaths are 100% preventable, yet they continue to happen because of simple mistakes that can have devastating consequences.”
Authorities and child safety advocates consistently urge parents and caregivers to take additional precautions to prevent children from being left in vehicles. Some of the recommended measures include placing essential items like a purse or phone in the back seat to act as a reminder, setting a timer on your phone to check the car, or utilizing technology that alerts drivers when a child is still in the vehicle.
As the investigations into the Beeville and Corpus Christi cases continue, legal action against the individuals responsible is anticipated. In the meantime, communities across Texas are dealing with the tragic loss of these young lives and are reminded of the dangers associated with high temperatures and lack of attention while driving.
