A grand jury has indicted a former bus driver for the death last year of a 3-year-old boy who was found in a hot van outside a Houston day care.
Maurice Mitchell was arrested Tuesday after being indicted last week on a charge of injury to a child by recklessly causing serious bodily injury or death.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office says Raymond Pryer Jr. died July 19, 2018, after being left in a bus for more than three hours following a field trip. Authorities say the van's interior temperature climbed to 113 degrees.
Prosecutors allege the 62-year-old Mitchell disengaged a passenger safety alarm, used to ensure young passengers weren't left behind, without first performing a visual inspection.
Court records didn't list an attorney for Mitchell.
According to the National Safety Council, if it's 95 degrees outside the internal temperature of a car could climb to 129 degrees in 30 minutes. After just 10 minutes, temperatures inside could reach 114 degrees.
A child's body temperature heats up three to five times faster than an adult and heatstroke can begin when a person's core body temperature reaches 104 degrees. A core temperature of 107 degrees is lethal, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
DV.load("https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6205017-Heatstroke-Fact-Sheet-English.js", { width: 600, height: 776, sidebar: false, text: false, pdf: false, container: "#DV-viewer-6205017-Heatstroke-Fact-Sheet-English" });
