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2-year-old NY boy, 8-week-old NJ girl die hours apart after being left in hot cars during heat wave

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2-year-old NY boy, 8-week-old NJ girl die hours apart after being left in hot cars during heat wave


A 2-year-old boy died after he was left in a hot car in New York on Monday — hours after an 8-week-old girl met the same fate in New Jersey, marking the 11th and 12th hot car fatalities in the US this year, according to officials.

In the latest tragedy, 28-year-old father Avraham Chaitovsky left his infant daughter in a vehicle for “an extended period of time” in Lakewood Township amid a sweltering summer heat wave, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Officers responded to a report of a child in cardiac arrest near New Egypt Road around 1:45 p.m. Despite lifesaving efforts, the 8-week-old baby was declared dead on scene, according to police and prosecutors.

The baby’s father, 28-year-old Avraham Chaitovsky, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Ocean County Jail

Chaitovsky was inside of the Kollel Cheshek Shlomo synagogue while his daughter was trapped in the hot car, News 12 New Jersey reported.

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The father was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

He was taken to the Ocean County Jail and additional charges may be forthcoming, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Meanwhile, shortly before 7 p.m. the same day, officers in Monticello, New York responded to a 911 call of a child in cardiac arrest inside a vehicle located outside Sleepy Hollow Apartment Complex, police told News 12 Westchester.

Chaitovsky reportedly left his daughter in the car in the parking lot of the Kollel Cheshek Shlomo synagogue. Google Maps

First responders were not able to revive the 2-year-old boy, who was pronounced dead at the scene by the Sullivan County coroner. It’s not clear how long he was in the vehicle.

The Post has reached out to Monticello police for more information.

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Temperatures topped 90 degrees in the tri-state area on Monday as blistering heat has suffocated most of the country.

Monday’s tragedies are the 11th and 12th confirmed deaths of children left in hot cars in the nation this year, according to national nonprofit Kids and Car Safety.

A 2-year-old boy died after he was left in a hot car in Monticello Monday. News 12 Westchester

Last week, a 5-year-old twin died in Nebraska after his foster mom left him trapped in a vehicle for seven hours in 89-degree heat while she went to work at a nail salon, police said.

Earlier this month, a 2-year-old girl died after her 37-year-old father left her in the brutal Arizona heat for hours as he played video games. He was charged with murder.

A total of 29 children died from hot-car related deaths in 2023 and another 36 died in 2022, according to the organization. The average number of US child hot car deaths is 38 per year.

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Kids and Car Safety Director Amber Rollins told The Post on Wednesday that a majority of hot car fatalities involve loving, caring parents who slip into “autopilot mode” that leads to the child being left behind in the car.

“It’s really the product of the right circumstances. These cases, almost all of them, are very much the same,” Rollins said. 

The boy was found inside of a car in the parking lot of the Sleepy Hollow Apartment Complex. News 12 Westchester

“The number one contributing factor is sleep deprivation, which is par for the course for parents of young children, combined with a change in the normal daily routine,” she continued. “A lot of these parents aren’t even used to having a child yet, and the first few months are brutal.”

Some safety tips the organization recommends to ensure the children are accounted for include getting into the habit of putting an item that’s necessary to a parent’s day — like a work laptop or wallet — in the backseat.

“The idea is that its training you of getting into the habit of opening the backdoor everytime you leave the vehicle,” Rollins said.

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It’s also recommended that parents keep a “reminder item” like a large stuffed animal in their vehicles that “lives in the backseat of your car.” When the children are in the car, parents should put the item in the front as a visual cue to remind them their child is there.

Kids and Car Safety helped pass federal legislation as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which includes a mandate for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to issue federal safety regulations to the auto industry on technology that automakers must put in vehicles to prevent hot car deaths.

Rollins said safety standards were supposed to be submitted last fall, but they still haven’t issued it. They’ve repeatedly pushed back the deadline, with the agency announcing just last week they’d need until April 2025.

“Meanwhile, every week, children continue dying, families continue burying their children and it’s unacceptable,” she said.

Since 1990, at least 1,095 children have died in hot cars, about 88% of whom were 3 years old or younger, according to the organization.

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NJ’s new budget is coming. How will state finances affect your taxes?

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NJ’s new budget is coming. How will state finances affect your taxes?



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Gov. Mikie Sherrill is set to present her first state budget proposal in a Tuesday, March 10, address to the New Jersey Legislature. It’s clear the proposal will make some hard choices as state finances face major headwinds.

Late last month, Sherrill said her budget plan will include some “tough choices” because of the looming uncertainty of a structural deficit for state finances.

The governor explained that if projections stay on the current path, the state would have a structural deficit of about $3 billion by the end of June, when her proposed budget would be in the final stages of negotiations with the Legislature.

Uncertainty due to federal funding cuts, along with the end of pandemic relief funding, has already forced Sherrill to consider all of her options when crafting her plan for New Jersey’s fiscal year 2027.

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The governor wouldn’t give particulars about what to expect in her upcoming fiscal plan but instead said she is “setting the table so people can anticipate that this is going to be a tough budget season.”

What does a structural deficit mean for New Jersey taxpayers?

A structural deficit, simply put, means New Jersey spends more than it earns.

Among the costliest tax relief programs in the state’s history, Stay NJ was introduced legislatively in the run-up to the fiscal year 2024 budget and received funding for three years without paying anything out.

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The first Stay NJ checks are being sent out to qualifying New Jersey seniors, but the accumulated $1.2 billion covers only the first six months of the program for this year. Roughly $900 million will need to be added to the line item in Sherrill’s first fiscal plan to maintain the program.

The law that created Stay NJ requires full pension payments, full school funding payments and a surplus of at least 12% to be built into the budget as prerequisites for funding the program. The surplus was not 12% when the budget was signed during the last two years, but budget language allowed for a work-around.

Sherrill would not commit to requiring the prerequisites before she would be willing to sign a budget bill in late June.

Increasing costs for the State Health Benefits Program, which is already a contentious topic, could also be a concern for the new governor, as payments are about $2 billion annually and the 10% increase needed in this year’s budget added more than $180 million.

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How does New Jersey’s budget process work?

New Jersey’s $58.8 billion budget for fiscal year 2026 is the largest in history and is set to expire at the end of June.

The plan for fiscal year 2027 — which will run from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027 — is a major factor in how New Jersey state government will function by dictating which state departments and programs are funded.

After Sherrill’s address in March, her proposed spending and revenue plan will be analyzed and shaped in the Legislature through the spring. Negotiations will heat up as the current fiscal year winds to a close in June. If the budget cycle is normal, a final budget bill will land on Sherrill’s desk hours before the current fiscal year ends at 11:59 p.m. on June 30.

Though it would be unlikely — given Democratic control of both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office — in the event the budget bill does not get signed, state government shuts down. There have been two shutdowns in state history: for 10 days in 2006 and three days in 2017.

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com

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Woman fatally struck by NJ Transit train in Ramsey

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Woman fatally struck by NJ Transit train in Ramsey


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A woman was fatally struck by a train in Ramsey on the morning of March 8.

The unidentified woman was hit by the train at 10:49 a.m., just west of the Main Street crossing near the main Ramsey station, said John Chartier, director of media relations for NJ Transit.

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Rail service was suspended in both directions between Allendale and Port Jervis but has since resumed, with delays of up to 30 minutes.

The train came from Port Jervis and was heading to Hoboken, and 150 people were on board at the time, Chartier said.

NJ Transit police are leading the investigation. No additional information about the circumstances of the death was available.



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Bratt | POST-RAW 3.7.26 | New Jersey Devils

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Bratt | POST-RAW 3.7.26 | New Jersey Devils


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