Radar sensor could stop kids dying in hot vehicles

Many parents may have left their child in a car momentarily when paying for petrol, or even to run a quick errand.

Now Japanese scientists are developing a range of sensors to raise the alarm when young children are left alone in a vehicle, after a series of heatstroke deaths caused by absent-minded teachers and parents.

There was widespread horror in the country last summer when a five-year-old boy died after being left for nine hours on a nursery bus in which temperatures rose above 50 degrees. The tragedy led to an online campaign in which young children were encouraged to sound the horn of vehicles if they found themselves trapped.

An affiliate of the world’s biggest carmaker, Toyota, is going a step further by working on a radar that can detect if a toddler has been left alone in a locked car.

The sensor is able to distinguish between adults, children and animals, and can identify even slight chest movements of an infant breathing. Having identified a child abandoned after the doors are locked, it will sound the car’s horn and flash its headlights as a warning.

‘‘We will use our technologies to save the lives of kids,’’ said a representative for Aisin, the auto parts manufacturer, which has developed the system with an Israeli radar company. ‘‘We hope such equipment will be adopted broadly in Japan.’’

According to Aisin, such fatal accidents occur often and everywhere in the world. In the United States, a total of 1018 children died because of being left behind in vehicles from 1990 to 2021. In France, a manslaughter investigation was launched last week after a 14-month-old boy died after being left alone in a hot car by his father, who apparently forgot to drop the infant off at nursery and went to work.

In Britain, parents can be prosecuted if they leave a child unsupervised ‘‘in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health’’.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) further recommends that babies, toddlers and very young children should never be left alone in a car or home while those under 12 are rarely mature enough to be left alone for a long period of time. The proposed new sensor takes the form of a thin radar panel that can be mounted in the roof lining and scan the interior, with data and movements analysed by an on-board computer. In tests the developers say it successfully scanned for infants in various scenarios, such as hiding behind a seat or sleeping under a blanket.

Aisin hopes to make the device commercially available in 2025.

Another company, Cybernetech, is developing a ‘‘left-behind detection system’’, intended for use in school buses. It uses motion detectors that transmit a warning through wireless networks to a smartphone or computer.

A forgotten child can also activate a call switch to summon help.