[chris]

A 2-year-old girl died after being left strapped in a Delray Beach, Florida, day care van in August 2010, and two employees later pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter of a child.

Haile Brockington was picked up on the morning of Aug. 5, 2010, by a van run by Katie's Kids Learning Center. Investigators said the driver parked outside the center and never checked the back of the vehicle. A staff member found Haile there at least six hours later and called 911.

The Palm Beach County medical examiner ruled that Haile died of systemic hyperthermia. The temperature in Delray Beach passed 90 degrees that afternoon.

Prosecutors charged the driver, Amanda Inman, and the center's director, Petra Rodriguez Perez. They said Inman failed to unbuckle Haile or account for her at drop-off, and that Rodriguez Perez had never trained her to sweep the van. Investigators said both women signed transportation, attendance and meal logs that day showing Haile had been in the classroom.

A state Department of Children and Families report released in December 2010 blamed human error. It found that three employees, including the director, ignored the owners' procedures for tracking children, and that a single staff member had been left watching eight children, half the number of adults Florida law required.

Inman and Rodriguez Perez pleaded guilty on Aug. 23, 2011. A Palm Beach County judge sentenced each to 10 years of probation and barred both from working with children again. Both had faced at least 13 years in prison if convicted at trial.

The Palm Beach County Health Department fined the owners, Kathryn Muhammad and Barbara Dilthey, $500 for each of four regulatory violations, the maximum it could impose. Katie's Kids gave up the Delray Beach license, and the owners closed their three remaining South Florida centers in June 2011. Haile's mother, Nelder Lester, sued the company for wrongful death.

Palm Beach County commissioners went on to require alarms in vans carrying six or more children, the first such rule in the state. The alarm sounds when the ignition is switched off and can only be silenced from the back of the vehicle. State Sen. Maria Sachs and Rep. Lori Berman filed a statewide version named for Haile.