antEs on child bus was Cordova was tragedyy has renewed scrutiny over Tennessee daycare center saffingg and heat safety rules after a-year-old WinterOnes died died, accordingccpolice say Thwas leftovercome by extreme heat after hours on a childcare bus outside Kid University in Cordova.Winter, described described nonvererbal and autistic, was discovered on the daycare van just after 3 p.m. Thursday, according to Action News 5, which cited the girl's family. The Memphis Police Department said officers responded to an ambulance call at 3:23 p.m. and found a child in need of medical assistance. She was taken to the emergency room at Baptist Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, her family told the station.
Winter's uncle, Christopher Jones, told Action News 5 that his niece had been on the bus for hours in temperatures that reached into the high 90s and that she had no way to call for help because of her disability.
"So... she really couldn't let anybody know that she was still on the bus," Christopher said. "She couldn't advocate for herself at all."
He said Winter's father, Bryan, was distraught after learning what happened.
"He's not doing well. None of us are really doing well at all. It's hard. It's tough," Christopher said.
According to Action News 5's First Alert Weather team, the outside temperature was 97 degrees Fahrenheit at the time Winter was found. Dr. Rudy Kink, a pediatric emergency medicine specialist at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, told the station that interior vehicle temperatures can climb to lethal levels within minutes under those conditions.
"With the car out in the direct sun at 97 degrees, the temperature can increase exponentially over minutes to where the temperatures can become deadly... 120, 140 degrees... it takes no time, especially with the windows up," Kink said.
State Rules Meant to Prevent Exactly This
The Daily Memphian reported that Tennessee regulations, if followed properly, should have prevented Winter's death. The outlet noted that state law requires childcare providers operating buses and vans to use monitoring devices, conduct bus checks after every trip, and maintain daily logs documenting those checks. Those safeguards exist specifically to catch situations in which a child is inadvertently left behind on a vehicle.
It remains unclear, based on available reporting, whether staff at Kid University performed the required checks on the day Winter died or whether a monitoring device was in use on the van. Kid University did not respond to a request for comment from Action News 5, and the daycare's website was suspended Thursday night, according to the station.
The Tennessee Department of Children's Services confirmed to Action News 5 that the agency is involved in the investigation into Winter's death. The Memphis Police Department is also investigating, though as of Thursday night no further details had been released about how long Winter was on the bus or what led to her being left behind.
A Broader Pattern of Hot-Car Deaths
Winter's death adds to a grim national and state tally. According to the nonprofit organization Kids and Car Safety, cited by Action News 5, at least 18 children had died in hot cars nationwide this year before Winter's death, a number her death brings to 19.
In Tennessee specifically, Winter is the third child to die this year after being trapped in a hot vehicle. Action News 5 reported that the second such death occurred just days before Winter's, during the same stretch of extreme heat, while the first was reported back in April. The clustering of three fatal incidents within a single state in one year underscores how quickly heat inside a parked vehicle can turn deadly, even on days that do not feel unusually extreme by summer standards.
Pediatric heat experts have long warned that a vehicle's interior can heat up dramatically faster than the surrounding air, particularly when parked in direct sunlight with the windows closed. Dr. Kink's comments to Action News 5 reflect a broader body of research showing that even outdoor temperatures in the 80s can produce lethal in-car conditions within a short window, and that children are especially vulnerable because their bodies heat up three to five times faster than adults'.
A Family Left With Questions
For Winter's family, the technical explanations of state bus-check requirements and vehicle heat dynamics do little to soften the loss of a child described as unable to speak up for herself. Christopher Jones told Action News 5 that his niece's inability to communicate made her especially dependent on the adults responsible for her care that day.
"It hurts me to know that my little six-year-old niece is no longer here, physically at least. But it really hurts me to see my brother in so much pain. It really does," Jones said. "This didn't have to happen."
The investigation into what happened at the daycare center remains active, with both the Memphis Police Department and the Tennessee Department of Children's Services examining the circumstances that led to Winter being left on the van. Neither agency had announced findings or potential charges as of Thursday night, and Kid University had not issued any public statement.
The case is likely to renew attention on how consistently Tennessee's existing bus-check and monitoring-device requirements are enforced across childcare providers, particularly for programs that transport children with disabilities who may be unable to alert staff or call for help if left behind. For now, the family of Winter Jones is left grappling with a death that, according to the Daily Memphian's review of state rules, should never have happened if existing safety procedures had been followed.}with the windows up.}
