A parkgoer was found dead inside a vehicle with two flat tires amid extreme heat at Death Valley National Park in California on Monday — the latest in a string of fatalities at federal parkland this summer, according to officials.
The 65-year-old San Diego man was discovered off the side of the road in his sedan with his windows rolled down in the park, the National Park Service said in a news release.
A maintenance worker noticed the vehicle about 30 yards off the road from North Highway around 10 a.m., finding the man unresponsive, officials said.
He was declared dead at the scene.
Tire tracks indicated the car drove along the road shoulder and rocky beam before further veering away from the paved road.
While the vehicle didn’t crash, it had two flat tires.
The initial probe into death indicates that a heat-related illness might have caused the car to run off the road.
It was determined the car was operational, but the air conditioning wasn’t working while the man was driving, the park service said.
The high temperature the day before the man was found was 126 degrees with the overnight temperature hitting 98 degrees.
The 65-year-old’s death is one of several to happen at national parks in recent months.
A father and his teen step-son both died while hiking in the punishing heat at Big Bend National Park in Texas last month.
The 14-year-old boy fell ill along the trail and lost consciousness before he was pronounced dead at the scene on June 23. The father, 31, in a rush to get help after the boy passed out fatally crashed his car.
A 57-year-old woman died while hiking in extreme heat at the Grand Canyon, officials also said Monday. Her body was found early Monday after emergency crews received reports of a distressed hiker the evening before, officials said.
