Father charged for allegedly leaving children in hot car

A father is accused of leaving his children unattended in a hot car in Vaughan on Tuesday when temperatures hit 30 C and with the humidity felt like 35.

At 5:45 p.m., York regional police received a call from a concerned citizen who noticed a three-year-old girl and her six-year-old sister alone in a car in the parking lot of a shopping plaza on Highway 27, north of Highway 7.

The concerned citizen took the children out of the vehicle and brought them into a fitness centre where paramedics assessed them to be OK.

The children’s father, a 35-year-old Ottawa man, was arrested and charged with leaving a child unattended under the Child and Family Services Act. His name wasn’t disclosed and it wasn’t immediately clear if the children were released back to the parent.

Police weren’t immediately available for comment.

This wasn’t the first time a father was accused of leaving his child alone in a hot car.

In June, a 42-year-old man from Toronto was charged for allegedly leaving his one-year-old daughter alone in a hot car in Vaughan.

The windows were opened a crack, police said, but the temperature on June 13 was above 30 C. The baby was OK and released back to her mother.

Police are reminding people not to leave their children or pets alone in vehicles on hot or cold days.

“In the summer, the interior of vehicles heat up quickly and will reach temperatures exceeding the outside air,” they said in a release. “Children and pets can quickly become overheated and dehydrated resulting in serious injury or death.”

Click on the image below to view how quickly temperatures heat up in a vehicle on a hot day.

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