Hot- car deaths bring congressional action
After deadliest July in almost a decade, Congress seeks alarm devices to detect kids still in car
A near- record number of children dying in hot cars this summer pushed lawmakers to try to require automakers to install technology that would alert drivers if a child was left in the back seat.
Eleven children died in hot cars last month, the deadliest July for such incidents in nearly a decade. The latest victims include 7- month- old Zane Endress and 1- year- old Josiah Riggins, two Arizona children who died within a day of each other last week.
Thirty- seven children die while trapped in hot vehicles each year on average. This year’s death toll is already 29. July is typically the deadliest month for children in overheated cars, said meteorologist Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services, who has tracked hotcar deaths for the past 20 years.
The last time the monthly toll from hot car deaths reached 11 was in 2008, he said. A record- high 16 children died in hot cars in 1999.
At least 729 children have died since 1998 from heatstroke in vehicles in the USA.
The annual total rose dramatically in the 1990s after juvenile deaths from cars’ front- seat air bags peaked.
New legislation required children to sit in back seats, where they are more easily forgotten.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D- Conn., and Al Franken, D- Minn., introduced legislation July 3 that would require that new cars come equipped with technol- ogy to alert drivers if a child was left in the back seat once the ignition was switched off.
In a statement, Blumenthal said such technology is available in many of General Motors’ newest models. Aftermarket products exist, he said, but are not widely used.
A similar measure was recently introduced in the House by Reps. Tim Ryan, D- Ohio; Pete King, R- N. Y.; and Jan Schakowsky, D- Ill. The bill passed out of the Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee earlier in July.
“You get a warning when you leave the keys in the car,” Schakowsky said in a statement. “You should get a warning if you leave a child in the car.”
Jackie Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a coalition of consumer health and safety groups based inWashington, said a fewGMmodels prompt drivers to check the back seat if they have opened a rear door at the beginning of a trip.
Other types of technology “can detect the smallest breath from a newborn” and alert a driver.
“We need to educate people to ‘ look before they lock,’ but on the other hand, we have a technology that will solve the problem,” Gillan said.