Overview

• Authorities took 18-year-old Tripura Merriex into custody in Lake City, Utah, on a $50,000 bond for felony child neglect.
• Merriex left her daughter in a 2002 Cadillac Escalade outside a Regal Cinema while attending a Smurfs screening on a 94°F day.
• Officers broke the SUV’s window after finding the toddler flushed, crying and drenched in sweat, and the child has since made a full recovery.
• The Utah case is the latest in a surge of hot-car incidents that have claimed at least 15 young lives nationwide so far this year.
• Safety advocates and lawmakers are urging the adoption of in-car alert technologies and expanded public-awareness campaigns to prevent future tragedies.