Clark, Perdue & List's Blog

The heat of the summer poses a danger to more than the elderly and infirm. We hear of pets dying after having been left in a hot, unventilated car, but did you know that as many as 36 children die every year in this country for that very reason? A decade ago, there was less than half that number of infant fatalities. But, ironically, the advent of auto safety restraint laws--requiring infants and small children to ride in the back seat--brought with it an increased risk of deadly adult inattention--walking off and leaving a child behind as a result of a distraction, or just plain forgetfulness.

In this day of car alarms sounding when keys have been left in the ignition or a safety belt has not been fastened, it is tragic that there is no regulation requiring audible alerts when a child is left unattended in an automobile. While some argue that the price for such technology would be exorbitant, the Kids and Cars organization (http://www.kidsandcars.org/) believes that the auto industry has the opportunity to eradicate this danger at a relatively low cost.

The Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers maintains that it is not cost, but rather feasibility of design that is the issue. It claims that safety is the industry's top priority and that it continuously seeks improvements in that regard. However, it contends, no one has developed a system that is immune to false alarms.

Still, it is encouraging to know that a few products that could prevent hyperthermia injuries have already been developed:

• The Child Minder is a system that replaces an auto's harness clip with a clip that is synchronized to a key alarm. It activates when a child is buckled in and will cause an alarm to sound when the adult walks more than 10 feet away;
  
• NASA is about to license the Child Presence Sensor. Its weight-sensitive pad will set off an alarm that sounds 10 warning beeps, if the driver moves too far from the vehicle, or that beeps continuously, if the driver does not return within one minute; and,
  
• Volvo's S80 sedan now includes a Personal Car Communicator that is able to detect heartbeats inside of a vehicle and to send a warning to the driver's wireless key fob.

These devices hopefully signal that such systems will be available and affordable to all consumers with young children in the very near future.