Durban - An afternoon of play ended in a double tragedy for a Clermont, near Pinetown, family on Tuesday when two toddler cousins died from heat exposure after becoming trapped in an unused car.
Robert McKenzie, spokesman for the KwaZulu-Natal provincial Emergency Medical Service, said the girl and boy had been playing with two other toddlers when they became trapped.
“Community members noticed the children in the car and rescued them from the hot vehicle before rushing them to the local Community Health Centre,” McKenzie said.
Paramedics were called, but little could be done for the pair, while the other two – a boy and girl, both aged three years – were taken to a provincial hospital.
Ntombenhle Sithole returned home from work in the afternoon to find her 2-year-old daughter, Asphile, missing.
Read: Toddlers die after being trapped in car
She was emotional on Wednesday, when she spoke to the Daily News. “I went to look for her and then I heard screams and…” her voice trailed off.
Asphile was one of the two who died. The little girl
would have turned three next month.
Sithole’s cousin, Ntokozo Sithole, who lost her son, 3-year-old, Bayanda, said she would be haunted for life by her child’s death.
“I don’t see this ever passing,” she said.
Ntokozo recalled how little Bayanda had still been clinging to life when she got to him.
“But I knew that he wouldn’t make it,” she said.
Bayanda died soon after.
The women said the children were playing in a neighbour’s yard when the tragedy unfolded.
The neighbour was a mechanic and the mothers had complained about oil leaks and unlocked cars before.
McKenzie said the circumstances surrounding the fate of the four children in the vehicle were the subject of a police investigation.
Temperatures in Durban on Wednesday topped 31°C and while McKenzie would not be drawn on the cause of death, it is possible they died from dehydration and perhaps from suffocation if windows in the car were closed.
Daily News