Jul 2015 31

Ways To Prevent Child Vehicle Heatstrokes

Today is National Heatstroke Prevention Day, and as a result we have brought you a list of the high-tech and low-tech solutions that have been developed over the years in order to offer some helpful solutions on how to prevent such tragedies. Each year, accidental heatstroke claims the lives of children all across the country when they become trapped or forgotten inside parked cars during the warm summer months. According to the nonprofit child safety organization KidsAndCars.org in the last twenty years, around 7,250 children have died in hot vehicles. As a result, many new technologies have been developed that serve as reminders so parents avoid this tragedy. Additionally, KidsAndCars.org have offered some low-tech tips to help parents train themselves to always check for their child before exiting their vehicle.

High-Tech Solutions:

Baby Reminder App – This free app allows users to input the day and time during which children are dropped off and the app will automatically send a reminder a few minutes after the drop off time has passed.

Remember the Kids – This iPhone app costs $1.99 and it works by monitoring the driving speed of the vehicle so that it can detect when the vehicle has stopped moving, At that time, it sends an alert to the user asking them if they remembered to take the children out of the car.

Childminder SoftClip System – This is a special product that generally sells for around $70 and is made up of two pieces. The first piece replaces the existing shoulder harness strap on the child safety seat and the second is a key chain attached to the driver’s keys. Through this system, when the driver steps more than 108 feet away from their vehicle, the key ring will sound an alert for about 12 seconds reminding the driver to check for the children.

Low-Tech Solutions:

Stuffed Animal – Parents can use a medium-sized stuffed animal as a reminder. The stuffed animal should be placed in the child seat when it is empty and then in the front passenger seat when the seat is being used to serve as a reminder to the parent. This way when they see the toy in their passenger seat it will alert them to the fact that the child seat is occupied.

Place Items In Back Seat – When traveling with Your child place your purse, wallet, phone or other vital accessories in the back seat with the child seat so that you will have to go into the back to retrieve it when you arrive at your destination. This will force you to look in the back and remember to remove the child as well.

For more information on ways to combat this issue, visit KidsAndCars.org. You can also view the original article here: http://www.edmunds.com/car-safety/kids-cars-and-heatstroke-deaths-what-are-the-solutions.html.