Safety urged as summer season gets under way

Friday, May 24, 2002 | 10:51 a.m.

Jody Esposito has a passion about her goal to protect children who are left in cars during hot Southern Nevada summers.

Esposito has plans to push for legislation that will remind parents their children could be at risk.

She is sympathetic to the fact that 20 Nevada children have died since 1994 after being left alone in vehicles, because one of them was her son, Michael.

Esposito and local organizations are spreading the word about summer safety for Las Vegas residents, focusing on preventing children from dying from the heat.

Michael Esposito, 5, was playing hide-and-seek in a dirt lot on May 6, 2001, behind the stands at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The boy apparently hid in the trunk of his mother's car. Trapped inside for about 30 minutes, Michael died after being hospitalized for heat exposure. The temperature outside was 90 degrees.

In order to stop such tragic deaths, Esposito is proposing "Michael's Law," which if passed by the 2003 Legislature would fine parents $100 if they left their child in a vehicle and were more than 10 feet away from it.

"In 12 of those 20 deaths, the mother forgot the child was in the car," Esposito said. "There is no law in Nevada to protect a child left in a car. That's ridiculous. There's a law for protecting dogs."

With summer vacations starting this weekend, many Las Vegas residents will be on the move in their vehicles.

While most people will enjoy a carefree three-day weekend, efforts are under way to make the summer safer.

The Clark County Health District, the Red Cross, state agencies and volunteers have teamed up to prevent such tragedies, whether it's children left in overheated cars, drowning in swimming pools or falling down abandoned mine shafts.

The Red Cross offers safety lessons to elementary school children. Besides heat, dehydration can cause symptoms ranging from disorientation to death, so the Red Cross education program urges everyone to drink plenty of water, at least eight glasses a day, more for active people.

Water in a pool, spa or even a 5-gallon pail is dangerous for children up to 4 years old.

This year there have been two drownings and 14 near-drownings in Southern Nevada, according to statistics kept by the Clark County Health District. Last year eight children drowned in the county and 59 others were reported nearly drowned.

While the trend this year seems to be improving, Chief Health Officer Dr. Donald Kwalick said he wants a safer swimming season. "These accidents can almost always be prevented with proper and constant adult supervision," Kwalick said.

The health district, Safe Kids Coalition and the county Department of Community Resources are sponsoring an annual drowning prevention campaign. The message is simple: Adult supervision prevents drownings.

Of children surviving near-drownings, 20 percent suffer severe and permanent disability after being submerged in a pool or spa.

Kwalick also recommends a five-foot fence around the pool that cannot be climbed, self-latching gates and locks.

To keep children out of mines, the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration has a brief message: Stay out and stay alive.

Last year at least 31 children and adults died nationwide in recreational accidents on mine property, said Dave D. Lauriski, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health.

A new report on Nevada mines issued in April reported an estimated 50,000 mine shafts and other mining-related sites remain a significant hazard.

The Nevada Division of Minerals report said that hazardous sites are among as many as 300,000 shafts, stopes and mill sites scattered around a state with vast mineral wealth that has drawn miners and prospectors for more than 150 years.