WASHINGTON — So far this year, 30 children have died from being left in cars on hot days, according to KidsandCars.org, and since 1990, over 800 children have died.
Auto safety advocates, as well as parents whose children have died in such tragedies, say it’s time for the auto industry to install technology that could alert drivers that a child is in the back seat.
“There is no reason, in this day and age, that we can’t solve this problem,” said Miles Harrison, a Loudoun County, Virginia, parent whose own son, 21-month-old Chase, died in the family’s SUV.
The “Helping Overcome Trauma for Children Alone in Rear Seats (HOTCARS) Act,” introduced in the Senate and House, would require establishing in two years a safety standard requiring an alert system in all new cars, said Jackie Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. The bill would also call for a study on how to retrofit existing cars with similar technology.
Gillan announced the group’s support for the HOTCARS Act on Monday, National Heat Stroke Prevention Day.
General Motors already has technology — in 18 of its 2017 car models — alerting the driver that a child is in the back seat.
The “Rear Seat Reminder” technology doesn’t directly detect an item in a rear seat, according to GM. Instead, it alerts the driver that the rear door was opened or closed during or just before a trip, prompting the driver to look back and check to see if something has been left behind.
So why haven’t other automakers followed suit?
That’s tough to understand, said Harrison, who wonders if it’s the result of living in what he said is a litigious society. “So if [carmakers] do come up with something and, God forbid, one time it doesn’t work, what happens?” he asked.
As a result, Harrison said, car companies seem stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire. “Meanwhile, children die every year,” he said.
Back in 2008, Harrison had strapped his son into his car, run an errand and — forgetting to drop Chase at day care — headed into work.
The grief that Harrison and his wife experienced never leaves, he said. That’s why he’s adamant that carmakers should include some kind of technology to alert parents or caregivers that a child has been left in a car.
“Please help us stop this terrible tragedy so other families don’t have to go through what my wife and I have had to go through — please,” he said.
