Pennsylvania Girl, Texas Boy Die in Hot Cars in Three-Day Span

Sean Breslin
Published: July 25,2016

Two young children died Friday and Sunday in separate hot-car incidents in Texas and Pennsylvania, officials said.
The first incident occurred Friday in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where 4-year-old Samaria Motyka was found unresponsive in the back of her caretaker's vehicle, according to WNEP.com. Temperatures soared to 97 degrees that day – hot enough to present life-threatening danger for any child or animal left in a hot car for an extended period of time.
The woman allegedly went straight to work instead of dropping Motyka off at day care, according to a separate WNEP.com report. When she returned to her car after work, the woman found the girl in her vehicle at about 3:30 p.m., the report added.

Samaria Motyka, 4, is seen in this image.
(The Motyka family)

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Authorities told Penn Live that the woman, who is in a relationship with the girl's father, was extremely remorseful and cooperated with police throughout the investigation, which is still ongoing. They think it may have been a case of negligence and are treating the case as an accident, the report also said.

Dallas Boy Found Dead in Hot Car

A Dallas family that was attending a Sunday afternoon bible study at a White Rock church didn't realize that one of their five children had been left in the car until it was too late, according to Fox 4 News.
Temperatures rose to 100 degrees in the area, and a fellow member of the church told Fox 4 News that the mother and father each thought the other had the 3-year-old boy with them. When they met up, they each realized that there were only four children inside the church, and the youngest boy was missing, the report added.
Police have not identified the boy and released few details about the incident, CBS News reported. It's unknown how long the boy was inside the stifling car before he was pulled out by his father.
"The kids like to read the Bible," church member Reng Om told WFAA.com. "I'm really upset for [the] family."
There have now been 21 child deaths blamed on hot cars this year, according to Dr. Jan Null of San Jose State University. Since Null began keeping records of hot car deaths in 1998, there has been an average of 37 such fatalities each year. On average, there are nine deaths in hot cars in both July and August – the deadliest months of the year, according to Null's data.
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