WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — A Salt Lake County adult care facility is under the state’s spotlight after three disabled men died of carbon monoxide poisoning when one of its staff members left them in a running vehicle unattended.
On Saturday, we learned that the Utah Department of Health and Human Services issued a notice of emergency agency action to Safe and Sound Services, LLC.
Now, more agencies are opening their own investigations into this case.
“You would hope that everyone would know better than to leave people in a garage for that long with a car running,” said Nate Crippes with the Disability Law Center. “I feel terrible for their families. It’s just a very tragic and sad situation.”
A probable cause statement shows that 25-year-old Isaiah Pulu stopped at his West Valley apartment for more than three hours on Friday to watch TV and eat. He left 25-year-old Colton Moser, 22-year-old Mosa’ati Moa and 39-year-old Tim Jones in a running car in his garage and found them dead when he returned.
Crippes says he couldn’t find words to describe the situation when he learned of it. But his agency is now among several taking action.
DHHS told us over the weekend that they had put conditions on Safe and Sound Services’ day treatment program in Salt Lake City.
FOX 13 News obtained the state’s notice Monday, which shows that the LLC cannot take in new clients and must comply with any state inspections or investigations. They will also have an increased number of inspections, and they must immediately retrain all staff on safe practices for transportation and supervision of their clients.
This will last for 30 days, until March 8, while the state investigates further. The state could take more action based on what they find in that investigation.
The company’s webpage has since been taken down, currently reading that it’s “under maintenance.”
Crippes says his center is opening its own independent investigation to shed more light on what’s happened.
“At a minimum, I think they need to be under heavy scrutiny to make sure that everything is being done as it should be,” Crippes said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the facts and what we need to prevent this from ever happening again.”
The state’s notice indicates that Safe and Sound has until Wednesday to request an administrative hearing if they disagree with the action that’s been taken. As of Monday evening, DHHS officials say they have not made that request.
