Baby left in hot car in Layton dies

LAYTON — A 6-month-old Clearfield boy left inside a car on a hot summer day has died.

The baby died Friday, police said.

The boy was left in a car on June 17. His mother told police she forgot him when she went inside a friend's house here. She came out a couple of hours later and found the boy in the back seat, unresponsive. Police said the woman tried to cool her son down before driving him to the hospital.

Investigators said it was about 89 degrees outside at the time the child was in the car. Inside the vehicle, investigators said it would have been about 120 degrees.

The Layton police detective handling the case will meet with the Davis County Attorney's Office on Tuesday to decide what — if any — charges should be filed in connection with the death.

"They're going to review the facts and decide what to do," said Layton Police Lt. Garret Atkin. "There's different factors on what charges they could go with."

In an obituary published Monday, the boy's family remembered Daniel Scott Hadley as a "joy to all who knew him." Hadley's funeral is scheduled Tuesday in Clearfield.

"He was the most perfect little baby anybody could ever ask for. Daniel, we miss you!" the family wrote.

Hadley's death is the second in Utah this year related to children being left in hot cars. In April, 18-month-old Myles Gailey died when he was accidentally left in a car in Kearns after his mother unloaded groceries and forgot her child.

Nationwide, a San Francisco State University meteorology professor estimates 10 children have now died of hyperthermia this year as a result of being left in hot cars. Jan Null, who studies the issue, published a study on the deaths and said the majority of children are "forgotten" by a caregiver and statistically, most are less than a year old. Null's study says that in the last 10 years, 370 children in the United States have died of hyperthermia after being left alone in a car.

Only 14 states have laws that prohibit leaving children in a vehicle. Utah has no such laws.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com