Boy Invents Life-Saving Device to Prevent Child Deaths in Hot Cars

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An 11-year-old student’s dirt-cheap invention could save the lives of children trapped in hot cars.

Andrew Pelham of Nashville, Tn., invented the EZ Baby Saver, a bright neon contraption made of rubber bands and duct tape designed to remind drivers of their backseat passengers by otherwise barring them from leaving the vehicle. The strap stretches from the vehicle’s back seat and attaches to the driver’s side door.

“The EZ Baby Saver is a tool to help people remember, ESPECIALLY when the routine changes, when a child is sleeping or facing the rear, or when a car is driven by grandparents or caregivers,” Pelham said on his website.

Pelham won $500 as the national runner-up in the Engineering and Science Division of the Rubber Band Contest for Young Inventors. He put his earnings toward buying a laptop to launch his website (as well as two Nerf guns).

Pelham says the EZ Baby Saver serves as an inexpensive and reliable alternative to baby alarms that can be made in as little as 15 minutes with rubber bands and duct tape. Rather than selling his design, Pelham shared instructions for how to make your own on his website.

According to data compiled by KidsandCars.org, 13 children left in cars have died from heat stroke in 2014 in the United States. Forty-four children died last year alone, and 619 have died since 1998. A caregiver “forgetting” the child caused more than 81 percent of heat stroke-related deaths, whereas 18 percent of cases involved a caregiver intentionally leaving a child in the vehicle.

Georgia has seen one confirmed heat stroke death and one probable heat stroke death this year. A 22-month-old Georgia boy died June 18 after his father, Justin Ross Harris, said he forgot his son in the car while he was working at Home Depot. A 2-year-old Virginia girl died June 17 after her head and neck became trapped in a car window. And a 9-month-old baby in Florida died the same day after his father forgot him in a hot pick-up truck for hours.

“People find it very convenient to talk about bad parenting ... they start spitting vitriol and think the parents are monsters,” says Janette Fennell, president and founder of KidsandCars.org. “The No. 1 message that needs to get out there is this can happen to anyone. Anyone who says, ‘I would never leave my child’ is fooling themselves.”

KidsandCars.org’s analysis of heat-related child fatalities since 1968 revealed nearly 60 percent of cases involve a parent or a caregiver being charged and ultimately convicted of neglect or homicide. Gene Weingarten won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2009 Washington Post piece, which questioned the inconsistent nature of these sentencings and whether any punishment could be worse than the punishment parents impart on themselves.

KidsandCars.org is actively lobbying within the auto industry to make child safety technology an automobile standard.

“You can’t buy a car today that doesn’t turn your headlights off for you or at least reminds you,” Fennell said. “It begs the question: Who decides it’s more important to have a dead battery than the dead baby?”