A New Jersey father has been charged after his 4-month-old son tragically died from being left alone in a hot car on March 18.
The incident occurred in Lakewood, where 35-year-old Moshe Ehrlich was arrested on March 20 and charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
According to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, police responded to a call around 1:45 p.m. that Tuesday, reporting an infant in distress inside a vehicle.
Upon arriving at the scene, emergency personnel were providing lifesaving assistance to the baby, who was subsequently rushed to Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus. Sadly, the baby was later pronounced dead.
An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the infant’s death revealed that the baby had been left unattended in Ehrlich’s car for what authorities described as an “extended period of time.” The infant’s name has not been publicly released.
Ehrlich, who turned himself in to the police, was taken into custody at the Lakewood Township Police headquarters on March 20 and is currently being held at the Ocean County Jail.
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His next court appearance is scheduled for April 28.
While the specific details of how Ehrlich forgot his child in the car remain unclear, hot car deaths are a devastatingly common tragedy in the United States.
According to NoHeatStroke.org, about 37 children under 14 die in hot cars each year. Often, such deaths occur when parents unintentionally alter their routines and forget their child in the back seat.
Despite temperatures in Lakewood reaching only 62°F that day, the interior of a vehicle can heat up rapidly, reaching dangerous levels in a short period of time.
Experts, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), emphasize that leaving children unattended in a car—regardless of the weather—is never safe.
This heartbreaking incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of never leaving children alone in cars, even for a brief moment.
