A 2-year-old girl was found dead Wednesday afternoon inside a Memphis day care van, left strapped in her car seat for about eight hours on a 90-degree day.
     Amber Cox-Cody was apparently forgotten by workers at the Children's Rainbow Learning Center. She was discovered at about 3:30 p.m. by a driver who was preparing for an afternoon run.
     Late Wednesday, state officials requested that the center close voluntarily - or automatically have its license suspended - while they investigate. 
    "It appears she was left in the van all day," police Maj. Glenn Williams told The Commercial Appeal of Memphis. "It's hard to believe ... You'd think they'd be more careful."
     Deaths of young children aboard such vans in Memphis in recent years have led to statewide investigations into regulation of state-subsidized day care centers. Among reforms resulting from those probes were regulations to prevent children from being left on vans.
     "This is just mind-boggling," said state Rep. Carol Chumney, D-Memphis. "How on earth could it happen?"
      New laws require drivers and on-board monitors to keep written records of children in transportation vehicles, along with making head counts to make sure no one is forgotten.
     "You are talking about a lot of people dropping the ball," said Chumney, among lawmakers and officials who led the charge for reforms. No charges have been filed.
      Memphis meteorologist Bob Smerbeck estimated temperatures inside the van reached between 120-140 degrees on Wednesday.
      Two deaths occurred in Memphis on July 21, 1999, when two toddlers died of heatstroke when left in vans at different day care centers.
      A 1-year-old girl was rescued from a day care van the following month after being left alone for about an hour. 
      Less than a month after that, a 4-year-old boy climbed through the window of a day care van after he was left alone for three hours.
      In each of those incidents, authorities say the children were accidentally left behind on the vans after drivers delivered youngsters to centers.
      Last year, four children and the driver died when a day care van crashed into a highway overpass in Memphis. An investigation showed that the van's driver had a history of marijuana use, and a small amount of the drug was found on his body.
      The owner of the van and the owner of the day care center the driver worked for were charged in March with reckless homicide in those deaths.
      There are about 1,150 day care centers in Tennessee that transport children. In Shelby County alone, about 20,000 children are transported to 360 centers.
      About 30 children nationwide died in hot cars, not just day care vans, from June 2000 to July 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
      Earlier this month, a 2-year-old died in Orange County, Fla., after being forgotten in a day care van.
      Chumney said the licensing process for day care centers must be addressed more forcefully. "You can draw some conclusions that centers are getting licenses who don't deserve to be in business," she said.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)