Latest news with #hotcar
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Dangers of leaving children in hot cars and the law that protects good Samaritans
SALT LAKE CITY () — Over 1,000 children have died from being trapped in a hot car, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 39 children died from heatstroke from inside a car in 2024, up 35% from 2023. Mike Ishida, Battalion Chief of the South Salt Lake Fire Department, explained it doesn't take much heat to make a car dangerous. He said, 'Even if it's 70 degrees outside, the chances that vehicle rising above our critical levels for an exposure to your kids or pets could be extreme and ultimately cause death.' The NHTSA says 52% of child deaths from being in a hot car come from being forgotten they are even there. 25% come from children finding a way to get into a car left unlocked and unattended. The third leading cause is from doing it on purpose. Ishida said leaving a small child locked inside, even for brief moments to fend for themselves, spells a lot of potential trouble. He detailed, 'We're talking toddlers and infants. The chances of them being able to help themselves are pretty much zero.' He continued, 'It's terrible as a parent thinking, you know, I'm just going to take a second to run in the store. Maybe a second turns into 10 minutes. It's not worth it.' Utah has a that can protect you from civil liability if you break into a car to free a child you think may be in danger. But, there are very key steps to follow: The person has to truly believe the child is in imminent danger, The car has to be locked and there is no other way to get into the car. Before breaking in, 911 has to be called to alert first responders. They can only use force that is necessary to free the child. No extra damage that doesn't make sense. They have to stay with the child until a first responder arrives. If one of those is not followed, the person could find themselves liable if a suit is filed. Ishida expressed the importance of calling 911 and letting first responders help. Salt Lake City faces soaring water demand and officials urge conservation as summer nears Salt Lake City Police Department uncovers suspicious activity at five massage businesses in Ballpark neighborhood Dangers of leaving children in hot cars and the law that protects good Samaritans Catholic Community Services calls for unity following 'hate crime' at Salt Lake City mosque Utah man pleads guilty to attempting to hire hitman while behind bars in 2020 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Walton County deputies arrests owner for dog left in hot car
WALTON COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – The Walton County Sheriff's Office responded to Scenic Drive after multiple reports of a small dog left in a hot car for an hour on Saturday. According to the WCSO, the car wasn't running, and the windows were only slightly cracked. The vehicle was opened by deputies using a lockout kit, and the Yorkie was pulled out and given water. Deputies said they called the number on the dog's collar. After a short time, 26-year-old Andy Matute Villatoro of Houston, Texas, showed up. He was at the beach, deputies confirmed. Villatoro was placed under arrest for animal cruelty. Walton County Animal Services arrived and said they tested the temperature inside the vehicle, the readings came back at 120 degrees. Villatoro was given a $1,000 bond and is still incarcerated at this time. The Walton County Sheriff's Office urges you not to leave your dog inside a hot car. It only takes minutes for a parked car to become a death trap for an animal, even with the windows cracked. If it's 85 degrees outside, it can exceed 100 degrees inside a car in under 10 minutes. Dogs can suffer heatstroke, brain damage, or death during that time. Officials added it's not only dangerous and inhumane, it's illegal. If you see a dog left in a hot car: Call 911 immediately Provide location and vehicle details Wait for the cavalry Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Father accused of leaving SLO County child in hot car faces federal fraud charge
The father of the 6-year-old boy who died after being left in a hot car during a Paso Robles heat wave now faces a federal fraud charge. Briant Reyes Estrada, 27, was arrested on May 11 after his child died at the hospital on May 10 of suspected heat-related injuries. The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney's Office charged him with murder and willful harm to a child on May 13. Reyes Estrada pleaded not guilty to the charges in court on May 14. On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office, which earlier said Reyes Estrada was undocumented and in the country illegally, filed a federal charge of fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents against Reyes Estrada, according to the complaint. The felony could result in up to 10 years in federal prison, U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy said in an email to The Tribune. Reyes Estrada's attorney Patrick Fisher did not respond to The Tribune's requests for comment by 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Father accused of leaving SLO County child in hot car enters plea in murder case The U.S. Attorney's Office alleged that Reyes Estrada committed fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents in San Luis Obispo County in April and August 2023, the complaint said. The complaint included an affidavit from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security deportation officer based in Ventura County, whose name was redacted from the document. Born in Donato Guerra, Mexico, Reyes Estrada allegedly entered the United States without the proper documents, according to the affidavit. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers saw Reyes Estrada near Naco, Arizona, on Feb. 23, 2022, then took his photo and fingerprints at the U.S. Border Patrol Station in Bisbee, Arizona, before deporting him to Mexico, the affidavit said. At some point, Reyes Estrada returned to the United States. After learning about the murder charge against Reyes Estrada, the federal agency Homeland Security Investigations researched Reyes Estrada in law enforcement systems and databases. Officers learned that Reyes Estrada had no approved or pending visas, applications or petitions that would allow him to live or work in the United States. He had not been issued an alien number or Social Security number, and he 'appeared to have no claim to lawful permanent resident status or United States citizenship,' the affidavit said. The federal charge is related to identification documents Reyes Estrada used to work at hotels in San Luis Obispo County. On Aug. 1, 2023, Reyes Estrada was hired at Pacifica Hotels as a general maintenance engineer, according to records provided by Pacifica Hotels. 'On the application, the third question asked, 'Do you have the legal right to work in the country where you are applying?' With a yes/no answer choice, Reyes Estrada selected 'yes' as the answer,' the affidavit said. On his I-9 form, Reyes Estrada offered a Social Security number that ended with the digits '9585' that was lawfully issued to a person with the initials J.F., the affidavit said. Estrada electronically signed that form on Aug. 1, 2023. The Paficia Hotels W-4 form from Aug. 1, 2023, 'bore the same name, address, Social Security number and date of birth as the form I-9,' the affidavit said. Reyes Estrada was fired from Pacific Hotels on Oct. 3 'because of multiple incidents regarding violating company policy related to filming on company grounds,' the affidavit said. 'The records also showed Reyes Estrada locking a female employee in an engineering room and turning off the lights, then laughing while the female employee was trying to leave the room,' the affidavit said. The hotel temporarily suspended him from his position while investigating the allegations, but Reyes Estrada allegedly returned to the hotel. 'This event culminated to a point where deputies from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office had to intervene and remove Reyes Estrada from the property,' the affidavit said. Reyes Estrada was previously hired as a housekeeper at the Bluebird Inn in Cambria on April 10, 2023. His W-4 from the Bluebird Inn included the 'same name, address, Social Security number and date of birth as the form I-9 and form W-4 from Pacifica Hotels,' the affidavit said. Homeland Security Investigations officers discovered that Reyes Estrada used a lawful permanent resident card, also known as a green card, that 'contained several discrepancies,' the affidavit said. The alien number on the card had been issued to a person born in El Salvador known as C.L.M. The card also listed Reyes Estrada as a spouse of a United States citizen, but officers did not find an application submitted by him for a lawful permanent resident card or any immigrant visa or permanent resident status. Additionally, the signature below the photograph did not match his signature on the W-4 Form for the Bluebird Inn, the affidavit said. Reyes Estrada is alleged to have left his child in his vehicle in the parking lot of the Paso Robles Inn on Saturday, May 10, according to the Paso Robles Police Department. The temperature there reached a peak of 99 degrees on Saturday, according to meteorologist John Lindsey, breaking a record set in 1997. It is unclear at this time exactly how long the child may have been left in the vehicle, and Paso Robles Police Chief Damian Nord told The Tribune the agency is awaiting an autopsy to determine the boy's cause of death. Officers responded to the hospital around 6 p.m. and found the child had been driven to the hospital by his father, Reyes Estrada. Reyes Estrada was previously charged with misdemeanor false impersonation, misdemeanor forging a driver's license and two misdemeanor counts of embezzlement in February. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday that Reyes Estrada was undocumented and could have been detained on April 29, when he was arrested for the February misdemeanor charges, but that California's sanctuary state laws prevented the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office from holding Reyes Estrada for Immigration Customs and Enforcement. Reyes Estrada's attorney Patrick Fisher previously told The Tribune that the U.S. Attorney's Office and other people were using the child's death as a prop for political rants expressing frustrations with immigration policy, calling the debate 'shameful.'
Daily Mail
15-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Illegal migrant who let son, 6, melt to death in 99F car was out on BAIL
An illegal migrant who was out on bail after being arrested two weeks earlier has been charged with murder for leaving his young son in a hot car. Briant Reyes Estrada, 27, is accused of leaving his six-year-old son to melt inside a hot car under the sweltering California sun. The father allegedly left the boy in the vehicle in the parking lot of the Paso Robles Inn on Saturday. The temperature there reached a peak of 99 degrees that day, reported San Luis Obispo Tribune meteorologist John Lindsey. Reyes Estrada brought the boy to Twin Cities Hospital in Templeton ,where he was pronounced dead, and the father was arrested, according to Paso Robles Police. The U.S. Attorney's Office shared that Reyes Estrada is an undocumented migrant who had been arrested two weeks before his son's death. An ICE detainer had been issued after his first arrest, but he was out on bail because of California state law. 'I'm angry that this young boy needlessly died,' San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow told KSBY. Dow posted on X that SB 54, or the 'California values act,' is the reason Reyes Estrada was allowed out on bail. 'Reyes Estrada had been arrested and booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on April 29, 2025, after which United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an order to detain the inmate at the county jail,' Dow said. 'However, California's state 'sanctuary' law prohibited our county jail from detaining the individual on that detainer. 'Had Mr. Reyes Estrada been properly detained, he would not have been free and able to do what he is alleged to have done to his child on May 10th. This child's death would very likely not have happened.' He was arrested in April and charged with false impersonation, forging a driver's license and embezzlement for a February incident. 'The prior arrest for this individual was for a property crime where he was taken to County Jail and later was legally eligible to make bail and was released from custody,' SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson told the local news station. 'This is an example of the complete failure of SB 54 in the state of California. SB 54 prohibits California Sheriff's from turning over somebody to ICE on a detainer. 'We also cannot speak with ICE unless the arrestee has a conviction for a qualifying offense.' Reyes Estrada was charged with second-degree murder and child abuse for his son's death. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to be back in court on May 22 for a pre-preliminary hearing. 'To charge him with murder under the circumstances that I'm aware of [is] very ambitious of this district attorney's office,' Reyes Estrada's attorney, Patrick Fisher, told KSBY. 'So, they have a lot that they're going to have to prove, and you know, it's my job to test their evidence. Can they prove it? And they've really set the bar high for themselves here.' The Tribune reported that this is not the first time Reyes Estrada had left his child in the car. Matt Griffith, his former supervisor at the Fireside Inn on Moonstone Beach in Cambria, said Reyes Estrada left his son in a car multiple times and Child Welfare Services was called at least twice. 'Supposedly, he didn't have a babysitter and he needed to work, so he left his kid in the car while he worked,' Griffith said.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Yahoo
Suspect in hot car death case can leave AZ; Glendale to vote on VAI Resort-related measures
PHOENIX - From an update involving a southern Arizona man who was charged in connection with his daughter's hot car death to a recall affecting certain over-the-counter eye products, here's a look at some of the top stories on for Friday, May 9, 2025.
