Las Vegan’s invention might have saved kids

Thursday, July 31, 2003 | 11:30 a.m.

Robert Stauffer did not know the 2-year-old Las Vegas girl who died Tuesday after being left in a hot car, but the college student says he can't help but feel a personal connection to the tragedy.

Stauffer, 18, won an engineering competition three years ago at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for his design of an electronic alarm that sounds when a child is left in a car seat and the temperature climbs too high.

While several automobile manufacturers have expressed interest in his design -- including Ford Motor Co. -- Stauffer said he's frustrated that his device wasn't in the car alongside toddler ShyAnn Raynor on Monday.

Metro Police say the child's mother picked up a friend's children and brought them to her apartment, forgetting that her own daughter was still inside the car. One of the friend's children alerted the mother after about two hours, police say.

"It's frustrating knowing you have an idea that could have saved some of these kids," said Stauffer, who is studying criminal justice at the Community College of Southern Nevada and plans on a career in law enforcement. "I just wish we never got to the point where my idea would be needed."

Kelsey Hand, who starts her freshman year at Bonanza High School next month, shares Stauffer's frustrations. As seventh graders at Hyde Park Middle School, Hand and classmates Athena Pisanello and Rachelle Taylor made it to the finals of nationwide competition for their design of a infant car seat alarm.

The idea for the device was spurred in part by the death of a 6-month-old Las Vegas boy who was left in a hot car by his parents in June 2001. Hand, whose family belongs to the same church as the infant's family, said she's still struck by the grief she saw on the faces of the parents at the funeral.

"When I saw the story about the little girl left in the car yesterday all I could think was 'Oh no, not again,' " Hand said Wednesday. "It bothers me that we have a way to save lives and we're not doing it yet."

The "Baby Beeper," would attach to a key ring and activate via a pressure pad in the child's car seat. If the beeper moved 10 to 20 feet from the vehicle without the child being lifted up from the pressure pad, the alarm would sound.

There are several car seat alarm devices on the market or in the works, but the Baby Beeper is the only one that attaches to a key ring, Hand said. The girls have secured a patent and hope to have the product available for sale soon, Hand said.

"Anything that helps remind parents that their child is still inside the car is something we would be in support of," said Jeanne Cosgrove, a registered nurse and executive director of Clark County Safe Kids, part of a national coalition sponsored largely by General Motors.

"You can keep a teddy bear in the car seat and then move it up front when you buckle in the child," Cosgrove said. "Or get in the habit of putting your briefcase or purse right next to the car seat, so that you have to look back there every single time you exit the vehicle."

Cosgrove said she was disappointed by the failure of a Senate bill during the last legislative session that would have mandated stiffer penalties for adults who leave children in cars.

Since May Metro Police have investigated 23 instances of children being left in cars, and five parents have been charged with child endangerment, a gross misdemeanor.

Metro Police expect to wrap up their investigation into the death of 2-year-old ShyAnn Rayner within the next several days and recommend that the district attorney's office file formal charges of felony child endangerment against her mother, Latasha Rayner, officials said. Rayner told police she forgot to bring her daughter inside her apartment.

Police recommended the same charge in connection with the death of a 7-month-old boy June 5. High school teacher, David Fish, who forgot to take his son out of his car and the boy died.

But the district attorney's office declined to file any charges, stating that Fish was not guilty of any criminal offense because he did not willfully cause harm to his child.

"Unless local government decides to do something about these cases, we're sending a constant message that's it's OK to leave a child unattended," said Cosgrove, who is the injury prevention coordinator at Sunrise Children's Hospital. "We should be fining parents who leave their kids, even if it's just five minutes outside a store. We shouldn't be waiting for the worst to happen."

Bills in the Legislature addressing the problem this session failed to get support.

A bill sponsored by six senators would have required increased penalties for people who leave children in cars unattended. It passed the Senate but failed to get out of the Assembly.

A bill sponsored by Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, would have required warning devices in car safety seats that would alert drivers if children were not removed from the vehicle. Williams said at the time the idea for the legislation came from Las Vegas pastor Sandy Blake-Toles, who invented a device that would sound warnings in English and Spanish when the engine was turned off but a child not removed from a car seat. The bill died in committee.

Steve Loyd, a teacher at Hyde Park who oversaw the girls' winning entry in the design competition, said as the father of two young children he views a car seat alarm as a safety measure -- not a substitute for responsible parenting.

"We can all say we'd never leave our child in a car, but there's no way of knowing every person's situation," Loyd said. "It's that one in a million time that it does happen that the alarm would help. I've never been in a house fire but I check the smoke alarms in my house twice a year. We're talking about the same kind of common sense."