Last update - 00:00 31/07/2007
Second child in week dies while trapped inside parents' car
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
A four-year-old boy from East Jerusalem died Tuesday after being trapped inside his parent's car, the second such incident to happen in a week.
A 7-month-old baby girl from Ramat Yishai died last Thursday after her father left her in a sweltering car for 90 minutes.
During preliminary questioning, the boy's parents told police they had not left him in the car, but that he in fact had entered it while playing. They were visiting relatives in one of the capital's northern neighborhoods at the time.
The 4-year-old boy, a resident of East Jerusalem's Shuafat refugee camp, was taken for treatment in a critical condition to the Hadassah University Hospital on Mount Scopus. Hospital staff subsequently pronounced the child's death after resuscitation efforts failed.
An Israel Defense Forces ban on entry into the family's neighborhood delayed an immediate investigation into the incident's circumstances.
According to data released by a children's rights group Sunday, the rate of conviction for parents who caused the death or injury of their children through suspected negligence has been less than 1.5 percent during the last six years.
The National Council for the Child said only three parents have been convicted for such offences over this period.