Categories:
Hot Cars - Latest News
Alabama company patents device to prevent hot car deaths
A technology company in Huntsville, Ala., has won a patent for a device its inventors say could prevent these nightmares from becoming real. The device patented on Jan. 1 is called Payton’s Charm, and it’s about the size of a garage door opener. It works by detecting the presence of carbon dioxide inside a closed vehicle. CO2 is the gas living things exhale when they breathe. If the baby’s in the car and breathing, Payton’s Charm will detect the CO2 and call you on the phone. The message: Something’s in the car and may need help.
'You live in hell every day': The tragedy of forgetting your child in the car
At the hospital, while holding her son's lifeless body for the final time, Raelyn Balfour made a promise to her nine-month-old: his death would not be in vain. While driving to work on the morning of March 30, 2007 in Charlottesville, Va., Balfour forgot to drop off her child Bryce at the babysitter's. Later that day, he died of hyperthermia in the parking lot of her workplace.
University of Alabama engineers develop solution to child heat deaths in cars
An average of 37 children die each year in the United States from being trapped inside a hot car, and engineering researchers at The University of Alabama have crafted a solution to prevent these tragic accidents. A patent-pending device can alert a cell phone when a human or animal is inside a parked vehicle getting too hot. It was developed by UA students from a concept devised by Dr. Timothy A. Haskew, department head and UA professor of electrical and computer engineering, The device monitors carbon dioxide levels from human breath inside a vehicle along with temperature and car movement, using computer algorithms to determine when to alert a cell phone.
The US is about to break its own record for kids who've died in hot cars within a year
The United States is on the verge of breaking its record for the number of children who've died in hot cars within one year, the National Safety Council warned on Tuesday. Forty-eight children have died in hot cars this year — one less than the all-time high of 49 deaths, set in 2010, the organization said.
The Utterly Heartbreaking and Horrifying Hot-Car Death of Baby Fern Thedford
Jennifer and Michael Thedford held hands as they walked into the Collin County courthouse in McKinney, north of Dallas. Jennifer, a 34-year-old veterinarian, was dressed in black pants and a blousy black sleeveless shirt, her blond hair pulled behind her ears. Michael, a 35-year-old high school science teacher, was wearing a dark suit, a gray shirt, and a dark tie.
