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Is tweeting enough to reverse the alarming trend of more children dying in hot cars ?
Safety advocates say there is technology available now on certain vehicles that regulators could make standard if they were so inclined.
The Trump administration’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday launched what it called a 12-hour “Tweetup” designed to raise awareness of the risk of heat stroke, and even death, when parents and others leave children alone in hot cars.
So far this year 35 children have died in hot cars, including a 22-month-old girl left in a minivan last Friday in Lindenwold, N.J. Last year 53 children died in similar circumstances, according to KidsandCars.org, more than double the 25 hot car deaths in 2015.
That safety watchdog organization reports that 889 children have died from heatstroke in cars since 1990.
Amber Rollins, director of KidsandCars.org, called NHTSA’s effort inadequate in light of the increased fatalities in recent years.
Automakers have introduced a variety of technologies in recent years designed to remind drivers’ of their precious human cargo before leaving a vehicle in hot and humid weather with no open windows.
General Motors, Subaru, Nissan, Hyundai and Kia are adding systems that trigger chimes or other alerting sounds and post messages on dashboard screens to warn people to check the back seat.
GM developed an alert system more than a decade ago that it said was so sophisticated that it could detect motion as subtle as breathing of a sleeping infant.
But Rollins said that feature was never introduced widely throughout the company’s product lineup.
In a statement, GM on Tuesday said its “first Rear Seat Reminder technology was introduced in 2016 as an immediate next step to combat the issue of children left in vehicles.”
GM has made that system standard, beginning this year, on all its new models sold in the U.S. and Canada.
Hyundai offers an optional feature on the SantaFe crossover model, and soon on the Palisade SUV, that reminds drivers to check their back seats if the rear door was opened or closed before the vehicle can start.
Rollins’ organization is pushing legislation, called the Hot Cars Act of 2019, in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require all automakers to install systems the detect backseat occupants after the engine is turned off. Specifically, the bill would mandate a “distinct auditory and visual alert to notify drivers and anyone outside the vehicle” that there is a person inside.”
A spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, automakers’ lobbying group in Washington, D.C., said the industry in exploring ways to advance collaborative efforts to reduce the risk, but he added that it is important to continue educating the public.
While most observers think common sense dictates that drivers should never leave a child along in a car, safety advocates, such as Rollins, cite research that shows hot-car deaths are not intentional. Parents of all demographic and socio-economic groups who have done this believed their children were somewhere else.
Most of the deaths by heatstroke in vehicles are accidental, according to NoHeatStroke.org, a data site run by San Jose State University’s department of meteorology & climate science. The group found that 26% of the deaths have occurred when children entered the vehicle on their own, while in 19% of the cases the driver intentionally left them in the vehicle.
“This is happening to incredibly loving, responsible and, in many cases, highly educated people, and it is not an intentional act,” Rollins said.
