Another child left alone in hot vehicle

Stephen Curran

Monday, July 26, 2004 | 10:56 a.m.

A 3-year-old boy was hospitalized Sunday afternoon after his mother left him inside a hot van parked outside a birthday party in Green Valley for at least half an hour, a Henderson Police spokesman said.

The boy may have been in the van for as long as an hour before he was removed and taken to Sunrise Hospital for observation, Officer Shane Lewis said.

As of this morning the investigation was ongoing and the boy's mother had not been charged in the case, Lewis said. The boy was still in the hospital this morning and specific information on his condition was not immediately available.

Officers have questioned about 30 witnesses, mostly those attending the birthday party in the 1400 block of LaBrea Road in Green Valley, Lewis said.

The boy was found inside the minivan about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, when the external temperature was 107 degrees. During the summer, temperatures can rise another 30 to 50 degrees inside a car, Lewis said.

"Obviously in this climate it's serious," Lewis said. "If this were December that would take a whole level of risk out of it."

Witnesses said the mother had arrived at the house to pick up another child from a birthday party, police said.

It was not clear why she left the child in the vehicle, Lewis said.

When she returned to the van, the boy's mother saw that her son was lethargic and called 911.

Lt. Jeff Carlson, head of Metro Police's Child Abuse and Neglect Unit, said each week his officers respond to a couple of cases of children left in cars. If prosecuted, parents can face up to 10 years in prison if the child suffers substantial bodily harm. Most cases, he said, result in the parents ordered to attend parenting classes.

"We prefer an educational aspect to it (the punishment)," Carlson said. "Obviously the goal is to not have that happen again."

Carlson estimated that Metro has responded to about 50 such calls this year. Lewis said Henderson responds to "a handful" each year but said his department did not respond to as many calls as Metro.

Exact numbers for Henderson were not readily available this morning, as the incidents are categorized under the broad "child abuse" heading, Lewis said.

The issue has also attracted the attention of state legislators. Sen. Valerie Weiner, D-Las Vegas, is expected to propose a bill in the 2005 Legislature that would levy a $300 fine against parents found guilty of who leaving a child under 7 years old alone in a vehicle.

A similar bill was struck down during the 2003 Legislature.

Carlson has also previously supported legislation to address children left in cars, saying the fine would clarify the abuse and neglect statute.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said he believed current laws were adequate to prosecute parents who leave their children in hot cars and that future legislation would not curb the problem.

This year, Roger said he has seen fewer parents on trial for leaving their kids in the car, possibly due to heightened attention given the issue.

Under existing statutes, parents can be fined up to $2,000 in addition to possible jail time, he said.

Most often, parents suffer a lapse of judgment, Roger said.

"It's a matter of some parents not stopping and thinking about what they're doing," he said. "Typically these aren't bad people. They're just individuals who didn't stop to think before they left their kids in the car."

Roger has also refused to prosecute parents who were determined to have accidentally left their children in cars, even in at least one case in which the child died. He has said that under the current law, a parent must have knowingly left a child in a car before they can be found guilty.

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