Charges considered for car rolling out of yard

Jen Lawson

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

The Clark County district attorney's office is considering whether to file child endangerment charges against a Boulder City father whose vehicle rolled down his driveway and hit a block wall after he left three children in the car.

District Attorney David Roger said his office was expected to receive the case today.

Joseph Pfeiffer could face child endangerment charges in connection with the July 22 incident. Boulder City Police are recommending that Pfeiffer be charged, Lt. William Brown said.

Pfeiffer had his three children, whom police described as "car-seat age," strapped in and was about to pull out of his driveway in a cul-de-sac, Brown said.

Pfeiffer realized he had forgotten his cell phone and went back inside for a moment. When he returned, the car was gone, Brown said.

"It rolled across the street and into someone's yard and hit a wall," Brown said. A neighbor heard the crash and called police. Pfeiffer thought the car was stolen and also called police.

No one was injured.

Brown said the car has a stick shift, and the father might have forgotten to pull the emergency brake.

Children have been left alone in cars on at least 30 reported occasions in Clark County this year, and two of those children died this summer.

The district attorney's office decides whether to file charges based on the circumstances of each incident. No one was charged in connection with the two deaths because, prosecutors said, the parents did not intentionally leave their children in their vehicles.

However, numerous parents and caretakers have been cited for child endangerment after intentionally leaving their children in vehicles while they ran errands. In some of those cases, children needed medical attention but in others the children suffered no harm.

There are two separate efforts in the works to try to eliminate "gray areas" in the laws that do not hold every parent or caregiver accountable if caught leaving a child alone in a car.

Clark County Commission Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey plans to introduce an ordinance that would make it a crime to leave children unattended in a vehicle in unincorporated areas of the county.

Anyone convicted of leaving a child in a car would be subject to a fine and may have to attend classes to make sure they understand the risk to children.

While Kincaid-Chauncey is working on that county-level change, Kathleen Boutin, a member of the board of directors of the Children's Advocacy Alliance, is trying to garner support for a new state law, the unattended child bill, which "will demand the same punishment for anyone who leaves a child unattended in a car," no matter if the parent forgot or acted intentionally.

"I think this is going to bring a lot more consistency," said Assemblyman Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, who is sponsoring the bill along with Sen. Valerie Weiner, D-Las Vegas.

"The child is either unattended or not," Conklin said.

The same bill died in the last legislative session, but Boutin and Conklin said they are confident it will pass when the next legislative session meets again in 2005.

Conklin said the new bill will "look remarkably similar" to last session's bill. Conklin plans to look at last session's notes to figure out why it died in the Assembly.

"Some people will ask the question, how can you legislate common sense?" he said. "But if you look at the facts, you've got ot recognize there's a problem."

Conklin said a bill draft request has been submitted, but it will be many months before it's written. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for an adult to leave a child 7 or under in a car unattended. The offense would carry a $300 fine.

"If you couple legislative change with public awareness, you can change behavior," Boutin said, adding that California had success in making drivers aware of the importance of seat belt use.