Ke’Torrius ‘KJ’ Starkes is 16th hot car death in 2025

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - 3-year-old Ke’Torrius ‘KJ’ Starkes, Jr died after accidentally being left in a hot car for hours on Tuesday.

Authorities tell WBRC he was accidentally left in the car while in the care of a DHR contract worker. DHR said he was being transported by a contract worker from Covenant Services, Inc.

Janette Fennell is the President of Kids and Car Safety. She said Sparks is the 16th hot car death in 2025.

“So something really fell apart, or there weren’t protocols in place. We just can’t be too safe. Little babies and young children are so helpless,” said Sparks.

Fennell said usually in these cases, it’s an immediate family member who accidentally left the child in the car.

“But there are plenty of cases. For instance, children do get left on daycare buses and everyone sometimes thinks somebody else has taken care of the child when in fact no one has,” said Fennell.

Fennell says any kind of agency taking care of children needs to have a protocol or method to prevent a hot car tragedy.

“When you put a child on a transport vehicle, you check them on the checklist that they’re on the bus. Then when you arrive, when they get if you check that they’ve gotten off. So you should have two checks on every name.”

WBRC reached out to DHR to ask what type of protocol they have in place for people who are transporting children, and will update when we hear back.

Get news alerts in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or subscribe to our email newsletter here.