Last summer, a horrifying occurrence hit far too close to
home. A 17-month-old baby was discovered dead in his car seat on the top floor
of a parking deck at the Capital One campus in West Creek. His father, for
whatever reason, did not drop the child off at daycare before heading to work
on a hot August day. When a call from the daycare alerted the father to the situation,
it was too late for the baby.
Everyone who heard about the event wondered how it could
happen. Midlothian teenager Hannah Rhudy rather than casting blame, channeled
her sadness to devise a simple way to help parents remember to check for babies
on board before leaving their cars.
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| Hannah Rhudy and Goochland Sheriff James L. Agnew display baby in baby out hang tags. |
Goochland Sheriff James L. Agnew, who responded to the West
Creek scene and has young grandchildren, introduced Hannah at the March 5 Board
of Supervisors’ meeting to tell her story.
“Always look before you lock,” is the slogan emblazoned on
simple hang tags, lime green on one side, bright pink on the other, designed for
display from a rear-view mirror.
“We want to make checking the back seat before locking cars
as much of a habit as wearing seatbelts to ensure that the precious cargo of a
baby is not forgotten,” Hannah said.
A video, narrated by a local pediatrician, explained why hot
cars are so dangerous for youngsters. A child’s body overheats three times
faster than that of an adult; heat
stroke begins when the child’s body reaches 104 degrees; death can occur at 107
degrees; the internal temperature of a locked
car can increase up to 20 degrees in ten minutes; cracking car windows or parking
in the shade does not slow the heating process; and an average of 37 children
die each year according to statistics from the safety organization Kinds And Cars
(www.kidsandcars.org).
Hannah plans to distribute the free hang tags at locations
around the Richmond area. She brought a bundle of them for Sheriff Agnew to
hand out at his office. Hannah hopes to work with tech students to create an
app with a heat sensor alert for parents. Visit her website at www.babyinbabyout.org for more information.
1 comment:
Some tech savvy individual stands to make a fortune if child car seats could be fitted with sensors to detect a car seat that calibrates weight to indicate a child is in the seat. An alarm system would be triggered when the car is turned off & locked with the seat still detecting the weight of the child in the car. The alarm should be so obnoxious that it cannot be ignored.
All child seats should be required with such sensors.
This will be more effective than training people to be responsible. It would also save more children's lives.
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