Unattended Child in a Car in School Parking Lot Dies

Mother arrested, charged in child's death

A 1-year-old child died after being left alone in a vehicle in an elementary school parking lot, Dallas police say.

The child's mother, Vibha Marks, has been arrested on a charge of abandoning a child with serious bodily injury.

Police said someone spotted the child unattended in a car parked in the faculty parking lot at Frank Guzick Elementary School at 5000 Berridge Lane at about 1:20 p.m.

The passer-by broke the window on the vehicle, removed the child and began performing CPR, police said.

Dallas Fire-Rescue confirmed that it was called to the school at about 1:30 p.m. When responders arrived, the child was unresponsive. Emergency workers continued CPR and transported the child to Baylor Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Marks, a teacher at the elementary school, was interviewed by the Dallas Police Department on Friday afternoon.

Officials with the Dallas Independent School District said Marks has been placed on administrative leave and that a letter was sent home to parents about the police presence at the school.

At 1 p.m., the temperature at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was 84 degrees. Studies of temperatures in enclosed cars shows that temperatures can rise by as much as 43 degrees in a one-hour period.

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