‘He was screaming’: Tragic details following deaths of two young children accidentally left in hot cars

Tragic details have emerged following the death of two young children who were accidentally left in hot cars by their parents who believed they had dropped them off at daycare.

The children, known only as AN and OVA, both died as a result of accidentally being left in hot cars in Sydney’s southwest in summer between 2023 and 2025, with an inquest into their deaths calling for childcare centres to notify parents of any unexpected absences.

OVA was 14 months old when she was bundled into the car by her parents in early 2025.

The family were running late, with OVA’s father described as being “frazzled” after dropping the girl’s mother off at the train station for work.

The man was meant to drop OVA off at daycare shortly after but instead drove straight home and logged onto work remotely, unaware that his daughter remained in the car.

Staff at the childcare were “confused” when he arrived about 5.30pm to pick up his daughter.

The man rang OVA’s mother and ran back to the car, realising his daughter had been in there all day.

“He was screaming. He got her out of the car and tried to wake her up,” NSW Deputy State Coroner Rebecca Hosking said during her findings handed down on Monday.

The man called OVA’s mother and told her paramedics were trying to revive their daughter, with Ms Hosking telling the court how incredibly distressed OVA’s father was as the tragedy unfolded.

The coroner found OVA died as a result of heat exposure after she was accidentally left in the car.

He parents described their life without the young girl, who was their first child, as like a “door with no handle — they can press their hands against it but it never opens”.

“OVA lived her life with spark in her eyes and a smile on her face,” Ms Hosking said.

“(She) looked at the world as if it was on the verge of surprising her.”

The inquest also examined the death of a three-year-old, known only as AN, who died in near identical circumstances in early 2023 on a day where temperatures reached a maximum of 31C.

AN’s father, who described his son as a “magnetic force”, had also driven straight home that morning instead of dropping his son off at childcare due to a “memory lapse”.

As in OVA’s case, the route home was similar to the way he would have driven after dropping his children off.

AN’s father drove home after getting petrol and began his workday as his son, likely asleep, sat in the back seat of the car.

Nearly six hours later the father picked up his other child from school and went to a nearby shop, screaming for help when he found AN in the back seat.

The man began CPR and splashed water on AN, who was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after by paramedics.

“In his statement to police AN’s father recalled, ‘I thought I dropped him off, I didn’t … I was not thinking … I opened my computer and started working’,” Ms Hosking read out.

“I couldn’t believe my eye … I don’t know, I did it.”

Ms Hosking accepted that both fathers believed they had dropped their children off.

Among her recommendations is a call for childcare centres to automatically notify parents if their children are unexpectedly absent and for the introduction of a new system requiring parents to similarly notify daycare centres if their children will not be attending that day.

She also recommended the expansion of public safety awareness campaigns and said they should include promotion of how easily memory failures can occur in parents.

Ms Hosking said campaigns should include a suggestion to parents to place one of their child’s essential items on the front passenger seat to help avoid memory lapses.

She made the same recommendations in both cases, recounting an expert’s opinion that “these are circumstances which can occur to the most caring, loving parent, of which all of them were in this case”.