In the last few years, we have heard a growing number of cases involving young children dying as a result of being left in a hot vehicle. In 2013 alone, 44 children across the country died of heat stroke because they were left in a hot vehicle. In Arizona, with our extremely hot summers, it is an even bigger problem. Nonprofit organization Kidsandcars.org reports that Arizona has the highest number of reported hot car deaths in the country.
A solution to the problem has come from an unlikely source. Arizona-based commercial airline pilot Scott McDonald was tired of hearing about these unnecessary and preventable car deaths and injuries. When McDonald’s friend confessed that he had almost forgotten his own child in the car, but that the child’s sneeze alerted him, inspiration hit McDonald. Vehicles alert drivers to turn off the headlights and to buckle seatbelts. Why not an alert that could possible save the lives of small children? He began working on a device that would alert drivers to the presence of a child in a car seat once the engine was turned off. The technology is called Aviso Child-in-Car Alert. McDonald hopes that one day the device will be standard in all new vehicles.
When McDonald designed Aviso Child-in-Car Alert, he was mindful of the fact that some alerts become an annoyance to drivers, and he wanted to insure that his device was helpful, not bothersome. When a vehicle is turned off and the device detects a child in the car seat, a chime will sound for 10 seconds. The driver then has 8 minutes and 30 seconds to remove the child from the seat or to restart the vehicle. After this, a different chime goes off for 30 seconds, alerting the driver that the horn will sound if the child is not removed or the vehicle restarted. McDonald notes that the alerts will not sound if the car had auxiliary power.
McDonald does not expect that Aviso Child-in-Car Alert will be a booming business for him. He is dedicated to generating attention to this growing problem, and wants to be part of the solution in any way he can. He said that if his product saves at least one life, then it is worth it.
Read original article here.