Prosecutors have declined to file charges against an El Cerrito man whose 4-month-old son died after he accidentally left him in his car all day last week while he went to work, Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett said.
"The circumstances were such that it was a clear and tragic accident," Jewett said.
Police said Alan Carey ordinarily dropped his son Everett off at day care and then drove to the El Cerrito Plaza BART station, and took the train into San Francisco where he worked.
On June 8, however, Carey apparently forgot to drop his son off and left him in his car all day with the windows rolled up and the doors locked.
When Everett's mother found out the child was not at the day care center, she went to the BART station and found him unresponsive inside his father's car, police said.
The mother called 911 shortly after 5:30 p.m. and Everett was taken to Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo, where the infant was pronounced dead about half an hour later, police said.
The Contra Costa County coroner's office conducted an autopsy on Everett's body, but an official cause of death is pending results from toxicology tests, according to the coroner's office.
Jewett, however, said it appears that the child died from hyperthermia, or heat stroke.
"There is no indication that there is anything suspicious or unknown about how he died," Jewett said.
Even on a relatively cool day, the temperature inside a parked car can quickly rise to levels that can be lethal to children and pets left unattended.
Police said it appeared that Everett had been in the car for most of the day.
