Mother in Hanover, PA, left toddler alone in car for 15 minutes: police

A mother from Hanover was accused of leaving her three-year-old son alone in the car for at least 15 minutes on a warm weekend, court documents show.

Samantha Ruth O’Brien, 33, of the first block of West Hanover Street, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. She was remanded to York County Jail on $10,000 bail, online court records show.

Hanover police responded Sunday afternoon to a report that a child had been left alone in a black Honda trailer in an alley behind a home. Officers found the vehicle parked in the blazing sun and the toddler strapped into his car seat, court records show. Two of the car doors were open.

The temperature was over 27 degrees on Sunday afternoon and police believe the child was left alone in the car for at least 15 minutes before police arrived, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The person who called 911 said they tried unsuccessfully to call the child’s parents from the house, the affidavit said.

Officers found O’Brien sleeping on the bathroom floor in the house, the affidavit states. She was taken for a medical examination, which revealed she was intoxicated, police allege.

“She did not ask about her child until police told her the child had been left alone in the car,” the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that police accuse the mother of exposing the toddler to the risk of death or serious bodily harm.

The Hanover police did not respond to a request for further comment.

How quickly a car can heat up in warmer temperatures

The nonprofit organization Kids and Car Safety held a press conference on Thursday, the first day of summer, to raise awareness of deaths caused by overheating cars and efforts to prevent them, displaying onesies to represent the 1,086 children who have lost their lives in overheating cars since 1990.

In addition to the deaths, the organization has documented at least 7,500 children who were “saved at the last moment,” but many of them suffered lifelong injuries, President and Founder Janette Fennell said during the event, which was shared on Facebook Live.

The organization is calling on the federal government to require automakers to equip their vehicles with occupant detection systems to prevent deaths in overheated cars, according to a press release.

The reminder to be safe when it comes to overheating cars comes as south-central Pennsylvania is in the midst of a prolonged heat wave.

If a car is sealed on a 80-degree day, temperatures inside the vehicle can rise to 120 degrees within 60 minutes, says Barry Lambert, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Many factors play a role, such as the color of the vehicle’s interior, the tint of the windows, humidity, the position of the sun and more.

According to Kids and Cars, children died of heat stroke even though the outside temperature was only 15 degrees.

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