Bill: New technology could save kids’ lives

A simple seat sensor or alarm button in child-care vehicles could have spared the lives of two Florida toddlers who died last month after being forgotten in hot vans, state legislators from Orlando say. Now, they’re proposing a new law to require the technology.

“We’ve had two deaths with day-care centers back to back. And it’s like this every summer — because we live in Florida,” said State Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando. “We have a checks-and-balance system where two people are supposed to sign that all the kids have gotten off, but if that worked, children wouldn’t be dying. We can’t leave this to human error.”

Her proposal, still being drafted, would require seat sensors or alarms in all commercial vehicles that transport small children. She has not decided the upper age limit yet, but it would at least extend through preschool.

Like warning buzzers that re--

mind drivers they’ve left their keys in the ignition or their headlights on, the sensors trigger an alert that a seat is still occupied after a vehicle’s engine is shut off.

Other systems employ an alarm that requires the driver to walk to the back of the vehicle and push a button to turn it off.

“I’ve seen the sensors for as little as $35 per seat,” Stewart said. “We’re not talking about a huge cost burden.”

For Barbara Livingston, the great aunt of Myles Hill, who died Aug. 7, it would be money well spent.

“I think it would have saved him,” she said of the 3-year-old, who was left behind in a day-care van for 12 hours while the temperature soared to an estimated 144 degrees. “I hope and pray to God they pass that. It won’t bring Myles back, but it will save another child.”

Less than two weeks after Myles’ death, a 3-yearold Pensacola girl died when she was left in a day care van there — the fifth death of a Florida child in a hot vehicle so far this year.

On average, about 37 children die of heatstroke in cars each year in the U.S., roughly 10 percent of them in daycare vehicles.

Florida’s day-care centers, licensed by the state Department of Children and Families, are already required to keep vehicle passenger logs with each child’s name, the date, time of departure and time of arrival. A second staff member must also sign the log, verifying that all children have left the vehicle.

“I think it’s a matter of following the guidelines that are already in place,” said Nicole Taylor, director of Green Day Early Learning Center in Orlando. “We always have an additional teacher come out and go through the vehicle to make sure no child is left.”

Still, she said the proposal was a good idea, and some other facilities — including KinderCare Learning Centers — already have the alarms in their day-care vehicles.

“Once you turn off the engine, you have about a minute or so before an alarm goes off — unless you push a button in the back of the vehicle,” said Meagan Meneses, director at the Orlando KinderCare. “It gives you one more opportunity to walk through and make sure everybody is off.”

Stewart’s proposal wouldn’t be the state’s first attempt to require the safety features. In 2011, a South Florida lawmaker introduced the Haile Brockington Act, named after the 2year-old Delray Beach toddler who died after being forgotten in a hot day-care van for nearly six hours. The bill failed that session and was reintroduced in 2016, when it failed again for lack of a companion bill in the state House of Representatives.

Palm Beach County has since passed its own safetyalarm ordinance, as has Broward County. And Stewart already has a co-sponsor lined up for her bill in state Rep. Bruce Antone, a fellow Orange County Democrat.

“We need to do everything possible to make sure no child is left in a day-care van,” he said. “If it ends up costing the parents a few extra dollars, I certainly believe that’s a good use of money.”

Kids and Cars, the national advocacy group that has pushed successfully for trunk latches and back-up cameras, also supports the day-care vehicle legislation, said director Amber Andreasen. Her group is already lobbying Congress for passage of the HOT CARS Act of 2017, introduced a month ago, that would require automobile manufacturers to include sensors in all vehicles’ rear seats to monitor passengers.

Yet that legislation, if passed, would take time to implement and only affect new vehicles. Andreasen said the Florida law could help cover

“Once you turn off the engine, you have about a minute or so before an alarm goes off — unless you push a button in the back of the vehicle. It gives you one more opportunity to ... make sure everybody is off.” Meagan Meneses, Orlando KinderCare director

the gap.

“Any time you’re transporting children, there should be very strict regulations,” she said. “You just can’t leave it to human memory.”

Jan Null, an adjunct professor of meteorology at San Jose State University, said he supports any advances that save lives but notes that 17 percent of hot-car deaths since 1998 have been in cases where children were intentionally left behind — typically by parents who think they won’t be gone long enough for the vehicle to overheat. Another 29 percent involved kids who sneaked into cars on their own.

“I’m a huge technology guy,” said Null, who runs NoHeatStroke.org and has tracked heatstroke deaths of children in vehicles for at least 15 years. “But a requirement for alarms doesn’t address nearly half of the cases out there. Florida law allows children to be left in a vehicle up to 15 minutes, which is crazy. You might as well not have a law if you’re going to do that.”

On an 85-degree day, the air temperature in the passenger compartment reaches 104 within 10 minutes — and 114 in 20 minutes, his calculations show.

Stewart agrees the 15minute limit has to change, and the lawmaker said she’s looking at addressing that as well. “For now my bill is really focusing on the commercial vehicles,” she said. “But the bottom line is that this is a preventable death. I just don’t want any more children to die.”