Not too long ago a baby died in Victoria after being forgotten in a hot car all day. It was not the first time it had happened and it prompted us to write this article on car seat safety – 7 Ways to Avoid Forgotten Baby Syndrome.
Now, five students from Rice University in Texas, Audrey Clayton, Rachel Wang, Jason Fang, Ralph LaFrance and Ge You, have come up with a solution to prevent any parent from ever forgetting their child in a hot car.
Their ground-breaking, new car seat accessory not only protects infants accidentally left in hot cars but can also notify caregivers and emergency personnel.
Infant SOS, is fitted into standard car seats and can issue auditory, visual and text alerts when it senses that the baby is in danger. It also features a passive cooling system designed to keep an infant’s core temperature below a critical point until emergency responders arrive.
The alert system is activated after 30 seconds of detecting something is not right. First, LED lights fitted to the car seat begin to flash and an alarm goes off. If the baby is still in the car seat after five minutes, text messages are transmitted to up to 10 different recipients which can include emergency responders.
“The system is designed to do as much as it can to get to as many people as possible,” Rachel Fang said. “And hopefully, passers-by can see the LED lights and can respond as well.”
Audrey Clayton said “Our hope is that our device can prevent this from happening.”
That’s our hope too.
