Baby girl dies in car after father in Malaysia forgets to drop her off at daycare

A 16-month-old girl in Malaysia died after her father allegedly left her in a car for hours, The Star reported on Wednesday (Oct 25).

The father allegedly forgot to send his daughter to a daycare centre situated within the campus of a public university in the Kuala Nerus district at Terengganu in the morning. 

He works at the university, according to Kuala Terengganu district police chief Abdul Rahim Md Din.

By the time this unnamed father remembered, he rushed to the car and found his child unconscious. That was at about 4.30pm. 

Rahim said that they were alerted on Tuesday (Oct 24) when the baby girl was brought to the students' health centre at the university.

"As soon as we received the report, the police rushed to the scene and found that the child had already passed away," he told The New Straits Times. 

A post-mortem was conducted at the Sultanah Nur Zahirah hospital last night, he said, adding the "the cause of death has not yet been determined as we are still awaiting laboratory analysis".

An investigation paper was opened under Section 31 (1) (a) of Malaysia's Child Act 2001.

This is the second reported death of a baby in Malaysia within a month.

An eight-month-old girl was found dead at the parking lot of a hospital in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 5, after being left in a car for 10 hours, Bernama reported.

The victim's mother, a doctor at the hospital, forgot to drop off her child at a nursery and went straight to work assuming that her daughter had already been sent to the nursery.

"She realised that her daughter was still in the car only when her husband called in the evening to say that their daughter had not been sent to the nursery," said Cheras district police chief Zam Halim Jamaluddin then.

Any person found guilty of ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning or exposing children in a manner that leads to physical and emotional injuries can be fined up to RM20,000 (S$5,700), or jailed up to 10 years, or both.

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ashwini.balan@asiaone.com