Thursday, Feb. 13, 2003 | 9:31 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- When children are left unattended in cars by forgetful parents in Las Vegas, the kids could die from the extreme heat or be abducted.
To avert these dangers, Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, wants to require warning devices in child safety seats that would alert drivers who leave the car without removing the child from the restraints.
Williams' bill, which is to be introduced today, calls for the state Department of Motor Vehicles to require the devices on the seats, which are currently required for children under 5 years old who weigh less than 40 pounds.
Children left in cars can be burned by seat belts and car seats heated by the sun, but the greatest danger is in the air, which gets "super-heated" in a closed car, Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.
During the summer in Las Vegas, temperatures inside parked cars can reach 170 degrees, fire officials said.
In May 2001 a 5-year-old boy found hiding in a car trunk at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway died after being hospitalized for several days. Michael Esposito was reportedly playing hide-and-seek and hid in the trunk of his mother's car.
The boy's mother, Jody Esposito, is supporting Williams' bill.
"I believe getting the bill passed will save lives of some children," Esposito said.
ReNae Dosch, a Las Vegas mother of 13-month-old twin girls, said that she sees the alarms as an extra precaution.
"It's hard to imagine leaving my daughters in the car, but if this is something that could save their lives I'd use it," Dosch said. "I don't know if it would help with people who intentionally leave their children in the car while running errands, because they could probably just turn it off or disable it."
Along with Williams' bill, Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, is proposing a bill to expand the use of child restraints. It would require that children under 9 and less than 80 pounds be strapped in a booster seat. Nolan, a deputy coroner, said that 12 children between ages 5 and 9 who were not secured in their seat were killed in Nevada last year. Many more were injured, he said.
Jeanne Cosgrove, director of the Clark County Safe Kids Coalition, a nonprofit coalition dedicated to preventing injuries to children, supports Nolan's bill.
"The minimum weight requirement for a seat belt is 80 pounds, and the current law for child restraints is 40 pounds, so we have a gap of 40 pounds that isn't covered," Cosgrove said. "Those are the forgotten children."
Nolan also wants to raise the minimum penalty for not having a child in a safety seat from $35 to $100.
Williams said his idea came from Sandy Blake-Toles, pastor of Love Center Unlimited, a local non-denominational Christian group.
Blake-Toles designed a device called "Remember Baby" that would be affixed to the car seats of infants and toddlers. It would include a voice module and use both English and Spanish.
When the car is turned off, the device sounds until the baby is removed from the car seat.
Three Hyde Park Middle School students in Las Vegas also designed an infant car seat alarm. Kelsey Hand, Athena Pisanello and Rochelle Taylor, all seventh grade students, were named finalists in a National Science Foundation competition for their invention.
Called Baby Beeper, the device clips to a keychain and when a child is placed in the car seat, a weight-sensor pressure pad transmits a signal to the key ring and activates the alarm system. If the key ring gets out of range and the weight is not lifted, the alarm sounds.
The bills were to be unveiled at a news conference to mark Child Passenger Safety Week.
According to the National Safe Kids Campaign, between 1996 and 2000 more than 130 children nationally died from heat stroke after being trapped in cars.
The Associated Press
contributed to this story.
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