A Utah woman was arrested last week for putting her child in a hot car with the windows up.
Police arrived at Draper Park within five minutes of receiving a call from bystanders about the boy on July 2 at around 9 a.m., Draper Police Lt. Pat Evans said.
When they arrived, officers found him in a vehicle that was turned off with the windows up in 82-degree heat, he said.
Jesica Brown, 28, told police that she put her 4-year-old son in the car as punishment for misbehaving in the park, Evans said.
A probable cause affidavit says an officer on the scene found the child’s head was hot to the touch, he was sweating and his eyes were puffy, CNN affiliate KUTV reported.
Both Brown and her boyfriend, who was not implicated in the incident, were standing outside the vehicle the entire time the child was inside, Evans told CNN.
Police removed the child from the vehicle and found needles in the mother’s purse and in the vehicle, KUTV reported.
Officers found a used needle in Brown’s purse and paraphernalia in her car consistent with heroin use, the news station said.
According to the affidavit, the mother admitted to using methamphetamine and heroin to an officer, KUTV reported.
Brown was charged with child endangerment because the child had access to drugs or drug paraphernalia, and child abuse for leaving her son in the hot vehicle, Evans said.
Evans told CNN the case has been referred to the Salt Lake District Attorney’s Office.
CNN could not immediately reach Brown for comment on the charges against her.
More Recent Deaths
Iowa
A 16-month-old child died after being left inside a hot car in Iowa.
The Sioux City Police Department said that officers were called to a street in Sioux City at around 4 p.m. local time on June 30, reported WHO-TV.
There, they found an unconscious child. When they arrived, they found the girl had been left without parental supervision inside a vehicle.
The child, who was not named, was taken to Unity Point St. Luke’s Hospital and was pronounced dead, according to the report.
Weather forecasters said that it was 98 degrees Fahrenheit in Sioux City on June 30.
Tennessee
A 3-year-old child was found dead inside a hot car in Tennessee, according to the City of Morristown in a statement.
“Officers responded to the report of a missing child during a search of the property; officers found the child deceased on the floorboard of a minivan that was parked on the property. Investigators believe, at this time, the child entered the vehicle without anyone knowing and became trapped,” the city wrote, adding that it appears to “be a tragic accident.”
Texas
Police in Galveston, Texas, said a 1-year-old boy died after being left inside a hot car for several hours.
According to KTRK, the Galveston Police Department said the father of the unidentified boy went to work at Los Lazos Mexican restaurant and left the child in the car.
Police said it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside when the child was found, Click2Houston reported.
Dangerous Situation
Heatkills.org, citing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that when outdoor temperatures range between 80 and 100 degrees, the interior of the car can get to 130 to 172 degrees.
“Children have died in cars with the temperature as low as 63 degrees. Basically, the car becomes a greenhouse. At 70 degrees on a sunny day, after a half hour, the temperature inside a car is 104 degrees. After an hour, it can reach 113 degrees,” stated Jan Null, adjunct professor at San Francisco State University, according to the website.
The NoHeatStroke.org website says 803 children have died in the United States due to heatstroke in hot cars since 1998. All of these deaths were preventable, the website said.
“The atmosphere and the windows of a car are relatively ‘transparent’ to the sun’s shortwave radiation and are warmed little. However, this shortwave energy does heat objects that it strikes. For example, a dark dashboard, steering wheel, or seat temperatures often are in the range of 180 to over 200 degrees F,” it stated.
Annually, about 38 children under the age of 15 die from heat stroke after being left in a vehicle, says Injury Facts.
The CNN Wire and Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips contributed to this article.