Sadly, it's about time. A car seat is being developed that will prevent children from overheating if they happen to be left alone in the car on a hot day. A shocking average of 38 children die each year after being left alone in cars in warm weather. The car seat, called the ANIEROS Vehicle Child Seat, would sound an alarm and flash lights if it senses the temperature is too hot and a child is still in the seat. If the parent who left the child in the car isn't close enough to hear the alarm or see the lights, the air conditioning in the car will automatically activate, preventing the child from overheating or worse. At this point, the ANIEROS Vehicle Child Seat is still a prototype, but god-willing this will go into production and be manufactured and sold -- because if we have to read about one more child dying in a hot car, it's too many.
To be completely honest, when I heard about the seat, my first thought was, "This is great, but will the 'people' who leave their children in hot cars be smart enough to buy such a seat? Surely, these 'people' don't think what they're doing is wrong and likely don't anticipate needing such a car seat." But the farther down I got in The Huffington Post article where I heard about the seat, I learned that, in the past few years, a dentist, a nurse, a cop, a rocket scientist, and other upstanding society members/otherwise attentive parents have all experienced tragedy due to leaving their child in a hot car. Shocking, to say the least. By no means do I think it's right or smart to leave a child alone in the car -- in any weather conditions -- but perhaps if car seats like this become more mainstream (maybe even standard?), a child will never die from this again.
Again, it's sad that something like this had to even be invented in the first place, but anything that will save a child's life and prevent a parent from having to experience the greatest tragedy on Earth can't be a bad thing.
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Would you ever buy this seat?
Image via ASCEND/Vimeo