This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

After returning from the grocery store just after noon Monday, Jana Gailey planned on putting her 18-month-old son down for a nap.

While Myles snoozed in his car seat, the 33-year-old mother of four unloaded bags from her car into her Kearns home.

Three hours later, Gailey rushed back outside to find her son unconscious in the car. Distracted, she had forgotten the boy in the vehicle as temperatures outside soared to nearly 80 degrees.

Gailey called 911 in a panic.

Myles was pronounced dead by paramedics who arrived at the scene.

On Tuesday, his death was classified as "heat-related," said Lt. Paul Jaroscak of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office. Results of the boy's autopsy will be released later this week.

The incident is part of a deadly trend that sweeps the nation each summer as the weather heats up, said Janette Fennell, president of the Kansas-based Kids and Cars, an organization dedicated to preventing child deaths in vehicles.

In a study of such deaths over a 10-year span, a researcher found that more than half of the 361 children who died in overheated cars were forgotten by the parent.

On average, 36 children die each year after suffering hyperthermia or other heat-related illnesses when left in hot cars by their caregivers, she said. That's approximately one child every 10 days.

Utah has seen a handful of cases in the past decade, including a horrific 1998 incident in West Valley City where two sets of sisters and their friend died in the trunk of a Saturn as outside temperatures hovered around 100 degrees.

Police said the five girls, ages 2 to 6, used a trunk-release lever near the driver's seat to enter the trunk. Temperatures inside the vehicle reached 138 degrees after they became trapped inside.

The parents in these tragic cases come from every social class. Fennell has worked with a pediatrician, college professors, high school coaches and a lawyer whose children all died in the past 10 years after being left in sweltering vehicles.

"When you're not familiar with these cases, you say, 'How could this happen? How could anyone forget their child?' " said Fennell.

But a slight change in routine, a brain on overload or a memory trick is all it takes for a responsible parent to leave his or her child in a vehicle by mistake, Fennell said.

"These are educated, caring, loving, parents. This could happen to anyone, anytime."

Friends of Jana and Jared Gailey described them as attentive parents who were very involved in the life of Myles and their other three children. Jared Gailey is a member of the Air National Guard with the 85th Civil Support Team in Lehi, said the family's spokesperson, Karen Nuccitelli.

He was flying home from a business trip when he received the tragic news about Myles, she said.

"All I can say is they're devastated. They're pulling together as a family," said Nuccitelli, who became friends with the family because her husband is Jared Gailey's boss in the Air National Guard.

"We are surrounding them with our love and support and making sure they have every resource available," she said.

Funeral arrangements for Myles Gailey are pending. Donations, flowers and condolences can be sent to Broomhead Funeral Home in Riverton, Nuccitelli said.

Myles is the fourth child in the U.S. in 2008 to die in a hot car, said Jan Null, a meteorologist and adjunct professor at San Francisco State University who studies the trend of hyperthermia deaths of children in vehicles.

Null said since 1998 at least 364 children nationwide reportedly died after suffering from hyperthermia - a condition caused by extreme overheating to the body. In more than half of those cases, children were simply "forgotten" by their caregivers inside vehicles, he said.

A vehicle's interior temperature rapidly rises once left outside, Null said. After 10 minutes, the inside temperature of a vehicle on average rises 19 degrees, he said. After 30 minutes, the vehicle is 34 degrees hotter.

That can spell disaster quickly for children, whose body temperatures warm three to five times faster than an adult's, Null said.

Myles Gailey died under circumstances similar to three other recent cases, he said.

Null noted it's early in the year to have several deaths related to children left in hot cars. In 2007, the fourth child death in the U.S. attributed to hyperthermia wasn't reported until May 18; in 2006 the date was May 28.

Reasons behind hot car deaths

San Francisco State University professor Jan Null researched circumstances behind the deaths of 361 children who were found dead in overheated cars from 1998 to 2007. He found the average age of children who died from vehicular hyperthermia in the past decade was 24 months. Null's research also found:

* 51 percent were "forgotten" by a caregiver.

* 30 percent were playing in an unattended vehicle.

* 18 percent were knowingly left in a vehicle by an adult.

* 1 percent of circumstances were unknown.

Source: http://www.ggweather.com, San Francisco State University Department of Geosciences and meteorologist Jan Null.