11-Year-Old Boy's Invention Could Prevent Hot Car Deaths

MSN ^

[Raymann]

Bishop Curry looks for ways to fix the world.

For an 11-year-old boy, he's unusually curious about big-picture problems, his dad says — from natural disasters to civil rights. And he's always loved to tinker.

That's why it wasn't a surprise when Bishop, after seeing an upsetting local news report about a 6-month-old who died when left in a hot car, resolved to make sure something like that never happened again.

[Krosan]

Sometimes the parents of young children are really under-slept. My son was the kind of kid who woke up several times a night and woke us up also. It was really hard to get proper amount of sleep and your attention may have huge gaps when you are in this condition.

[higgmeister]

Bingo.

On the one hand I'm with you: how far do we have to go to protect stupid people from themselves?

On the other hand, how far do we have to go to protect the rest of us (and the children of the stupid people) from them?

I don't know the answer .....

This sounds cold, but there has always been an argument for culling the herd. After all, that is what the Darwin Award is about too.

[Teacher317]

What if the car's AC doesn't work ?

Irrelevant. No invention or solution prevents every possible negative outcome, especially those based on the failure of other systems. If it saves some (most?) in kid-or-pet-in-a-hot-car situations, and it is cost-effective, then it's a very good product.

[American in Israel]

So the “invention” has to start the car in order for it to work. I can just see somebody getting out of their car in 10 minutes later it starts up and drive the kid down the street.

The FReepers solar exhaust fan is far more practical.

[I want the USA back]

There is an invention already. It is far better than this. It is present in the heads of most humans. The human brain has the capability of making sure that no kid is left in a car. There is only one requirement: caring.

I totally object to the idea that people today are completely overworked, preoccupied and in need of a mechanical device to remind them about their kids.

[DennisR]

Hm. We have our three-year-old grandson every Thursday. As far as I know, there is no way in the world I would ever forget he was in the car with me / us. Even if he was asleep.

[cva66snipe]

I believe child death in hot cars used to be less frequent for several reasons. The biggest reason is car design. Seats were not high back, windows were not tinted, kids were not buckled in with seat belts that take an act of congress to release, there were no child car seats, and windows could manually be opened from inside. It was real easy to see the entire inside of the vehicle both while driving and when exiting the vehicle. Seat belts were not around when I was a kid and at least one kid rode in the coveted front seat. Now all kids below age 12??? must ride in back. Most cars did not have A/C nor automatic windows thus windows had to be manually rolled up and doors manually locked.

Parents have always been distracted even good ones and accidents have always happened. But they were less frequent I believe simply for the reasons stated above.

[tenthirteen]

here’s the deal...design a car seat that has electronic capability. put the child into the car seat, and then plug in a wire to the car seat that is hooked up to the cars horn. if the weight of the child in the seat is not released within 60 seconds of the engine cutting off, the panic horn will sound and not go off until the weight is lefted from the car seat.

DonBack soon, have Patent Office on hold.

[tenthirteen]

DonBack= Done. Back soon

[King Moonracer]

Half the people are below average.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

What if the car's AC doesn't work ?

That would turn it into a convection oven instead of a regular oven. Bad.

[Arthur McGowan]

The Supreme Court needs to declare that a child in a car is not a person.

Problem solved.

[apostoli]

“Half the people are below average.”

Actually, only 1/4, the other 1/4 is Maxine Waters.
There’s a lot of -IQ in that one!

[simpson96]

"The fact that the IQ in this nation has dropped to where this is a thing bothers me."

I'll second that.

Why be always careful and responsible with your precious child, when there's an app for that?

[apostoli]

“There was (assume there still is) a small solar powered exhaust fan that you put on a window and is locked in when the window is rolled up.”

yep, lotz to choose from out there. But these cannot lower temps below the outside ambient.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GPEB8FA/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_c_x_1_w

[ChildOfThe60s]

I/we have been there with the young child and sleep deficit thing. There was one stretch weeks long when ours was a baby where the wife and I slept in 1-2 hour shifts. 33 years later it still makes me cringe.

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t drive if I was so tired that I could forget my child in the care just like I wouldn’t drive drunk with my kid in the car.

[ChildOfThe60s]

I’m gonna throw out something else here my wife says that will stir things up.

She says half of these kids that die like this are not accidents. The parents do it on purpose.

[Dilbert San Diego]

There was a report years back that showed there was a connection between these car deaths and the introduction of the laws requiring the car seat to be installed in the back rather than the passenger seat up front.

---

Very interesting to hear this. Here we see unintended consequences of what was thought to be a good idea, to have the car seat in back.

I wonder, how many babies were killed in car accidents, due to a car seat being in the front seat, vs. how many have died in hot car tragedies. And how many of the accidents were so bad, that the baby would have died, whether the car seat was in front or back.

Something to think about.

[Bellflower]

With new tech many, many inventions are just waiting to come into being. Most have not caught up mentally with all the multitude of possible inventions.

[jmaroneps37]

God bless this young man and the family that produced him.