Alarms aim to save children left in cars
By
Robert Nolin
Staff Writer
October 8, 2004
Even the best parents can sometimes lose track of their kids. But when they
forget a young child in a closed car, as police said one Hollywood man did last
week, the consequences can quickly turn deadly.
At the urging of consumer and child safety groups, devices designed to alert a
parent to a child left in a car are coming closer to reality.
"There just needs to be a fail-safe system," said Janette Fennell,
founder and president of the Leawood, Kan.-based organization Kids and Cars.
Fennell, who tracks fatalities resulting from children left in hot cars, said
the figures support the need for special alarms. Last year, 42 children
nationwide, most 3 or younger, died from heat exposure after being left in a
closed vehicle. The number stands at 34 so far this year, including nine in
Florida.
South Florida has already seen four such cases, the most recent on Oct. 1.
Hollywood police said Thomas C. Wade Jr., 20, drove his sisters to school with
the 1-year-old son of his girlfriend in the back seat. He returned to the Polk
Street home he shared with his girlfriend, Danielle Peterson, 19, and left
Trent Peterson in the car.
Several hours later, police said, Wade remembered Trent, snatched him from the
car and dashed inside. An autopsy revealed Trent died from heat exposure. Wade
was charged with manslaughter.
Manslaughter charges were also leveled in the three other South Florida cases:
That of Antonio Balta of Elmont, N.Y., whose 9-month-old daughter Veronika died
in her car seat in March while Balta was at the horse track; Melissa Wildman of
Lake Worth, whose 4-month-old daughter Savanna was forgotten and died in a car
in April after Wildman spent a night drinking and taking drugs; and dentist
Dennis Francisco Sierra, whose 3-year-old son Andres died in a car outside his
father's Boca Raton office in July.
Had alarm devices been available, those and other deaths across the country may
have been avoided, said Sally Greenberg, senior product safety counsel with
Consumers Union in Washington, D.C.
"I would like nothing more than to see technology come to the market that
would help remind otherwise conscientious parents that they have a child in the
car," Greenberg said.
A case of a child's death in a car last year in Dallas spurred Michael Sheriff
of AirGATE Technologies to develop a device that attaches to a child's car seat
buckle. When the car's ignition is turned off, an alarm sounds in about 20
seconds if the child's seat strap is still buckled.
Fennell said NASA is developing a device that is placed under the pad of a
child's car seat. The pad registers the weight of the child and a receiver on
the driver's key ring would sound if taken more then 15 feet from the car while
a child is still in the seat.
Eron Shosteck, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said,
"No technology is ever going to be a substitute for vigilant
parenting."
Robert Nolin can be reached at rnolin@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2024.
Copyright © 2004, South
Florida Sun-Sentinel
