Police crack down on parents who leave kids in cars

Jen Lawson and Erica Johnson

Monday, July 14, 2003 | 11:25 a.m.

Within two to five minutes, a child left alone in a hot car begins experiencing symptoms that could lead to organ failure, then death, a trauma and critical care surgeon at University Medical Center said.

Since May, Metro Police have investigated 12 cases of children being left in cars, and three parents have been charged with child endangerment, a gross misdemeanor. One child has died.

Metro wants to drive home the message that leaving children unattended -- especially in extremely hot weather -- could be fatal to the child and result in criminal prosecution for the parents. Police are planning to launch a public educational campaign on the issue.

"It should be common sense," Carla Alston, spokeswoman for Metro, said. "We don't understand why parents don't realize that they can't do this."

Dr. Jay Coates said cars sitting outside become like greenhouses. The temperature in a car can be up to 30 degrees hotter than the temperature outside.

A child left in a hot car can begin having symptoms of heat exhaustion within minutes, he said.

"They can get dehydrated and get muscle cramps because they are sweating salt and water," Coates said. Flu-like symptoms set in, mental capacity drops and the child loses the ability to sweat because the body becomes depleted of fluids.

When a child's body temperature reaches about 103 degrees, organs start to fail. At 105 degrees, "you literally start cooking," he said.

When a child is brought into the emergency room after being left in a car, it dismays Coates and other staff members.

"As a health care professional, my opinion is no minutes are OK," he said. "Kids should not be left alone in a car. Leave the kids at home or take them with you."

The district attorney's office has filed charges against three parents since June 3: Maria Door Soto, Won Chong and Elizabeth Albarran.

Soto was arrested this morning on a bench warrant for child endangerment. She was taken to the Clark County Detention Center pending $10,000 bail.

The father of a 7-month-old baby who died after being left alone in a car last month did not face charges because prosecutors determined it was not intentional.

Metro Police were not able to provide the number of cases investigated last year.

In another high-profile case, Reyes Franco, a tourist from New Mexico, pleaded no contest last month to disorderly conduct after he had left his 4-year-old son in a car outside the Crazy Horse Too in July 2002.

Reyes was initially charged with child endangerment and pleaded guilty.

After successfully completing probation and attending parenting classes, Reyes, 32, was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea and plead no contest to the lesser charge of disorderly conduct.

Janette Fennell, president of Kids and Cars, a San Francisco based nonprofit, said the probation and parenting classes were appropriate.

"Anyone who does this should go to parenting classes," she said.

Fennell supported Senate Bill 17, which would have made it illegal to leave a child seven years old or younger unattended in a car and would have also carried a $300 fine. That bill died in the Legislature.

"Are parenting classes going to get (Franco's) attention?" Fennell asked. "I hope so. But I think a nice stiff fine would as well."

She said Franco's case was a perfect example of the ambiguity in Nevada's laws, which leave it up to prosecutors to decide whether to press charges.

"What he did was absolutely wrong, but is he supposed to walk away or are we to go all the way and make it a felony?" she asked. "There's nothing in the middle."