Children as young as 2 years old can climb into unlocked vehicles

Tragically there are no shortage of “Child Left In Hot Car” headlines in the summer. But, the danger to children left alone by a distracted parent or climbing into an unoccupied car does not end on Labor Day,

Not all hyperthermia or hypothermia cases are caused by distracted drivers. Toddlers like to roam. they are quick and if you turn your back for an instant - they are gone. Children, as young as 2 years old, curious about the family car where rides, treats and nice things happen, can and will open the door and climb inside.

What they don’t realize is that the doors will automatically lock. Small children are trapped. For good reason, doors are programmed this way – until something happens.

With no understanding of how to open the doors and with family members assuming the child or children are happily occupied elsewhere the child will be trapped in a very cold place until his absence is noticed and a search is initiated. Until then, it can be a matter of survival in increasingly dangerous conditions.

While not nearly as prevalent as the tragic problem that occurs in southern, sub-tropical climates, the risk of a child or children in very cold weather climbing into an unlocked car exists as well. Freezing temperatures, endured over a long period of time are every bit as fatal as too much heat.

Experts say always keep car doors locked and keep keys and automatic openers away from where children might reach them.

All good advice and most families already do this. For those who forget and for those who thought the car was locked, there is now a solution with which all auto-manufacturers can equip their vehicles.

This is not another after-market gadget, dependent on someone remembering to set its alarm; this is installed at the factory along with the air bags, the window wipers and the chime that tells you to fasten your seat belt. The solution to intervening in and preventing both hot and cold car deaths can be in vehicles in a short time.

The tragic scenarios are all too familiar

Each parent may think the child is with the other parent… Maybe both are distracted with a household project. Their minds may simply be elsewhere and not thinking about their child who “was just here a minute ago,”… Maybe the child was outside with grandma who only went into the house for a few seconds to answer the phone…

We must put an end to this! No more baby and pet deaths in hot or cold cars, no more near misses; no more innocent lives lost; no more needless tragedy.

Truth be told

There are many cases of young children climbing into an unlocked car and succumbing to the cold, but most of the cold car deaths and emergencies we saw during our research were parents who left the children in the car in frigid temperatures while they went shopping or went out drinking in night clubs or gambling in a casino or other reckless (or possibly criminal) behavior.

They thought they could go shopping or have a night on the town with their baby or toddler strapped into a car seat in a cold car.

State Children and Family Services departments can't monitor every parent and find all the irresponsible ones. It is impossible to weed out every inept, clueless, addicted or simply irresponsible parent who has a young child.... But we can make the car safer.

Isn't it nice to know that cars could soon be manufactured with an onboard autonomous system installed that will identify a living being in the car and provide life savings measures no matter how blatantly irresponsible the parent or guardian may be. If a child is left in a cold car by a distracted or irresponsible parent, the Auto Guardian will sense the child and make sure that the temperatures do not reach dangerous levels within that automobile

Please join the growing number of people and organizations – both child and pet advocates– who want this system included in the onboard autonomous systems of all new vehicles manufactured.