{"id":27445,"date":"2026-05-21T14:07:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/27445\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:07:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:07:06","slug":"tragedy-as-toddler-dies-in-hot-van-after-father-forgets-to-drop-her-off-at-nursery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/27445\/","title":{"rendered":"Tragedy as toddler dies in hot van after father forgets to drop her off at nursery"},"content":{"rendered":"

A two-year-old girl has tragically died in a van after her father forgot to drop her off at nursery in north-west SpainRita Sobot Spain Correspondent and Eliana Nunes<\/a> News Reporter<\/p>\n

10:52, 21 May 2026Updated 12:39, 21 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Civil Guard is investigating the incident (file)(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A two-year-old girl has tragically died after being left inside a van in north-west Spain when her father forgot to drop her off at nursery.<\/p>\n

Police said the toddler was exposed to high temperatures after the inside of the vehicle rapidly heated in the 25C weather<\/a>. Her father reportedly went to work, unaware she was still in the van, after becoming distracted by a phone call following an earlier school drop-off for his older child. The tragedy took place in Brion, in the province of A Coru\u00f1a in the autonomous community of Galicia<\/a>, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A full investigation is under way to establish the exact circumstances. According to initial reports, the 29-month-old child died after spending several hours inside the vehicle for several hours. Her mother raised the alarm after discovering she had not arrived at nursery when she went to pick her up in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The tragedy took place in Brion, where the child’s family live(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The child was taken to the Bertamirans Urgent Care Centre in cardiac arrest but did not survive. Medics attempted to resuscitate her for 20 minutes. Her cause of death is believed to be severe dehydration and heatstroke.<\/p>\n

The Civil Guard is investigating the incident, with officers from the Santiago Territorial Judicial Police Team taking charge of the investigation. Members of the Psychological Intervention Group in Catastrophes and Emergencies (GIPCE) are supporting the family.<\/p>\n

News of the two-year-old girl’s death has shocked residents of Brion. The Town Hall has declared two days of official mourning and called for residents to gather for a minute’s silence on Friday.<\/p>\n

Experts note that vehicles can heat up very quickly in warm weather, and according to the charity Kids and Car Safety<\/a>, a child\u2019s body can overheat three to five times faster than an adult’s. In the United States, around 40 children die each year in hot vehicles – roughly one every nine days. The charity also reports that 86 per cent of children who have died in these incidents were aged three or under.<\/p>\n

Kids and Car Safety says that hot vehicle deaths and injuries are “largely misunderstood by the general public”.<\/p>\n

“In over half of hot car deaths, the person responsible for the child\u2019s death unknowingly left them in the vehicle. In most situations this happens to the most loving, caring and protective parents,” the charity says. “It has happened to a teacher, dentist, social worker, police officer, nurse, clergyman, soldier, and even a rocket scientist. It can happen to anyone.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A two-year-old girl has tragically died in a van after her father forgot to drop her off at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[695,10232,17],"class_list":["post-27445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-breaking-news","tag-emergency","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}