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It has been one of the worst years in more than a decade for children left in cars : 49 have died nationwide so far in 2010 after being left unattended in hot vehicles.

But a Utah lawmaker, Sen. Ben McAdams D-Salt Lake City, would like to see that the Beehive State doesn't become a notable contributor to the next decade of fatalities.

His solution: Create a state law that would be a deterrent and a tool for police officers when young children are found alone in sweltering cars.

"We need to send the message that this is not acceptable, that leaving a child unattended in a car is criminally negligent and endangers the child," McAdams said.

Since 1998, eight children in Utah reportedly have died from hyperthermia or related circumstances, according to Jan Null, a California man who has become a de facto expert on the topic.

Null, an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University, said that across the country, the high temperatures in 2010 could have been a factor in the record year for fatalities.

"Yes, we had a hot summer. But these can happen on days that are not record hot," said Null, who has researched the issue.

The West Valley City Prosecutor's Office asked McAdams to sponsor legislation that would give law enforcement officers and prosecutors a wider latitude in charging negligent caregivers. McAdams said the problem with using existing child-abuse laws in Utah to prosecute people is a requirement in the law to prove that the child was harmed. It also doesn't specifically name the act as a crime.

The Democratic lawmaker is looking at legislative language that would make it unlawful, possibly a misdemeanor, for children under 6 years of age to be left unattended in a vehicle located on a street or in a parking lot.

"A lot of people are hesitant to accept criminal responsibility when they are charged. They don't think of it as child abuse," said Ryan Robinson, chief prosecuting attorney for West Valley City. Robinson said that during the past four years, the city has received about a dozen of the cases each year.

At least two Utah cities — Spanish Fork and Provo — have a law that criminalizes the act, making it a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Provo police Capt. Cliff Argyle believes that type of law can be a deterrent.

"We do use it," Argyle said. "It is constructive."

Some might find Null an unlikely candidate to become known for his expertise on the issue, considering his vocation is meteorology. But his passion for studying heatstroke-related fatalities started when someone asked him to detail how temperatures rise in a vehicle.

Null has been published in the medical journal Pediatric on the topic. He found that in more than half all U.S. cases, children were simply "forgotten" by their caregivers while inside vehicles. He points out a vehicle's interior temperature rises rapidly once outside. That can quickly spell disaster for children, whose body temperatures warm three to five times faster than those of an adult, he adds.

His studies also indicate that these incidents can occur on days with relatively mild, 70-degree temperatures, as vehicles can reach life-threatening temperatures very rapidly.

"It's really sad that only 15 states have such legislation," said Null, who added that he has become a court-certified epidemiologist.

McAdams plans to introduce his proposal in the 2011 session. —

U.S. fatalities of children left in cars

1998: 39

2002: 31

2006: 29

2010: 49

Source • Professor Jan Null, San Francisco State University —

Notable Utah cases of children left in cars:

July 20, 2008 » David James Farnham, 24, left his a toddler alone in a car for more than an hour while he caught a midnight showing of the new Batman movie "The Dark Knight" at a South Salt Lake movie theater. Farnham's son, 2-year-old son, Justin, was found alive in the car alone after a movie patron called police after noticing the boy. Farnham was sentenced in 3rd District Court in March to serve 30 days in jail and pay a $1,500 fine.

June 17, 2008 » Kamilyn Kartchner Hadley forgot her 5-month-old, Daniel, in her car for about two hours outside a Layton home. The car was parked in the driveway in direct sunlight on a day when outside temperatures ranged from 86 to 89 degrees. The boy died at a hospital three days later. Hadley was charged in 2nd District Court and pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, a Class A misdemeanor. She was ordered to complete probation and get counseling from LDS Family Services.

May 11, 2008 » A Salt Lake City store security guard spotted a 2-year-old left in a warm vehicle in a downtown Sears parking lot in Salt Lake City. The guard broke the car window and pulled out the boy, who was found to be suffering from heat exposure. The boy survived.

April 28, 2008 » Jana Gailey returned to her Kearns home from a trip to the grocery store and left her son, 18-month-old Myles, in the back of her vehicle. Three hours later, she remembered the boy was in the car. Paramedics arrived at the home and pronounced the boy dead. No charges were filed against Gailey.

September 7, 1998 » Dylan Robert Bjorkman, 2, died of hyperthermia after being in his family's car in West Valley City for nearly an hour. He was discovered by his sister, who went out to the car to retrieve corn bought for dinner. The boy was unconscious on top of a blanket in the back seat of the unlocked vehicle.

August 7, 1998 » Sisters Jaesha Lyn and Audrey Cleo Smith, cousins Ashley Marie and Alisha Richardson and their friend McKell Shae Ann Hedden died of heatstroke in West Valley City. The girls — all between the ages of 2 and 6 — were playing when they got trapped in the trunk of a Saturn sedan. The mother of two of the children, Dixie Smith, who was watching the girls, searched for them before discovering their bodies in the trunk more than an hour later. Temperatures reached about 140 degrees in the trunk. It was about 96 degrees outside the day the girls died.

Source • Salt Lake Tribune archives