Utah Woman Put 4-Year-Old Son in Hot Car as Punishment, Admitted to Using Drugs: Report

Police tape in a stock photo. (Carl Ballou/Shutterstock)

Police in Utah have accused a mother of placing her 4-year-old boy in a hot car as a form of punishment.

Officials also said he was sitting within reach of a used heroin needle that the woman, Jessica Lee Brown, had used, Fox13 reported.

Police were called in for a welfare check at the Draper City Park in Draper at around 9 p.m. after receiving a report of young boy being held in the vehicle for a “time out.”

Officers said that it was 82 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

When she was questioned by officers, Brown said she put the boy inside with the windows up and the car off after he started “acting out.”

The boy was sweating and had puffy eyes, officers noted, according to the report.

Brown was taken to jail, and she now faces child abuse and child abuse charges.

The boy was handed over to relatives.

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.