Photo: dfw.cbslocal.com
Children keep dying in hot cars and one mother from North Texas believes the time is nigh lawmakers and carmakers did something about it.
In June 2016, Michelle Stuyvesant had to be at work early, so her husband dropped her off first, while their 3-year-old son slept in his carseat. Because the husband usually dropped the kid to daycare first and because the toddler wasn’t up, the man forgot him in inside the locked car.
He realized what he’d done about an hour later but, by that time, the child had already suffered six heat strokes, which left him in a very critical condition. The boy needed lengthy treatment and care, with Stuyvesant saying he had to “learn how to do everything over again, he was helpless like an infant.”
The boy is now ok, but so many children aren’t as lucky as he was. With more cases of children dying after being left behind in hot cars, Stuyvesant is working towards getting a bill passed that would force carmakers to install technology inside all their vehicles, which would, in turn, prevent tragedies like this from happening.
Stuyvesant is now working with Kids And Cars advocacy group and the bill is the HOT CARS Act (Helping Overcome Trauma for Children Alone in Rear Seats Act of 2019), CBS DFW reports. “It’s a simple thing that can help,” she says for the media outlet. “But before we have this act passed we need to make sure that people understand this can happen to them.”
In Stuyvesant’s opinion, that’s the only reason tragedies like this continue to happen: people don’t believe it could ever occur to them.
“The Hot Cars Act of 2019 is a federal bill that would require the auto industry to add a sensor or something in the vehicle to remind you that someone might be left behind,” Janette Fennell, the founder of KidsAndCars.org, says for the same media outlet.
Until the bill passes, parents can make sure they don’t forget their kids behind by placing other items next to them, items they could not leave without – like their shoes or purse.
He realized what he’d done about an hour later but, by that time, the child had already suffered six heat strokes, which left him in a very critical condition. The boy needed lengthy treatment and care, with Stuyvesant saying he had to “learn how to do everything over again, he was helpless like an infant.”
The boy is now ok, but so many children aren’t as lucky as he was. With more cases of children dying after being left behind in hot cars, Stuyvesant is working towards getting a bill passed that would force carmakers to install technology inside all their vehicles, which would, in turn, prevent tragedies like this from happening.
Stuyvesant is now working with Kids And Cars advocacy group and the bill is the HOT CARS Act (Helping Overcome Trauma for Children Alone in Rear Seats Act of 2019), CBS DFW reports. “It’s a simple thing that can help,” she says for the media outlet. “But before we have this act passed we need to make sure that people understand this can happen to them.”
In Stuyvesant’s opinion, that’s the only reason tragedies like this continue to happen: people don’t believe it could ever occur to them.
“The Hot Cars Act of 2019 is a federal bill that would require the auto industry to add a sensor or something in the vehicle to remind you that someone might be left behind,” Janette Fennell, the founder of KidsAndCars.org, says for the same media outlet.
Until the bill passes, parents can make sure they don’t forget their kids behind by placing other items next to them, items they could not leave without – like their shoes or purse.
Google News