Every summer we hear the same heartbreaking stories.
Some say they were distracted, or just thrown off by a change in the usual morning routine. Others say the baby was so quiet that they simply forgot it was there.
Whatever the reason, each year, dozens of parents do what seems unfathomable to many: they accidentally leave their children in a hot car. Sometimes for hours.
And the thing is, even when we are talking about only fairly mild summer weather outside, temperatures
inside a car can very quickly rise to dangerous levels.
In the US alone, an alarming 31 children died of heatstroke in cars in 2014, according to the most recent data available from the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And they come from all walks of life, meaning it's a mistake we all potentially could end up making.
In fact, according to the nonprofit
KidsandCars.org, a doctor, dentist, professor, school principal, veterinarian, and rocket scientist are among those who have forgotten to take their babies out of their car seats. (A
rocket scientist, people.)
But for two dads from Florida, these tragic numbers prompted them into saying that enough was enough. Fadi Shamma and Jim Friedman took matters into their own hands and invented
Sense-A-Life, a device that reminds drivers to take a child out of a car.
"We were tired of hearing all these sad stories and seeing the agony on parents' faces and we decided that this is such a serious problem that could probably be solved with a simple solution," Shamma told
Fox 13.
The clever two-stage device uses sensors, so that when a child is in the seat and a door opens, a voice alert reminds the driver to take the child out. On top of this, an alert also goes to his or her phone. If the alert is ignored for long enough, a
backup alert also goes to a second parent or guardian's phone.
Shamma and Friedman say they hope to market the device to individuals, car companies and/or car seat manufacturers.
