Alabama Toddler Dies in Hot Car While in State Care

A 3-year-old boy died in a hot car in Birmingham, Ala., this week while with the state's Department of Human Resources — something the child's parents have called their "worst nightmare."

He was "accidentally left inside ... while in the care of a third-party contracted worker through the Department of Human Resources (DHR)," the spokesperson said.

French says that the worker, who was employed to do transport through Covenant Services Inc., went Tuesday morning to pick KJ up from a child care center to bring him for a supervised visit with his dad.

Afterward, however, the worker did not bring the boy back to his center and instead decided "to run numerous personal errands with KJ still in a car seat in the back," French claims. The stops including getting food and going to a tobacco shop.

The employee then went home but KJ was left in the car, according to French.

In a brief statement, DHR confirmed that a child in their custody "was being transported by a contract provider when the incident occurred. The provider has terminated their employee."

"Due to confidentiality, DHR cannot comment further regarding the identity of the child or the exact circumstances," the agency said.

The worker involved has not been publicly identified but police said they "have been cooperative" and were "transported to the Birmingham Police Headquarters for questioning."