Devices scarce to protect kids in cars

If you need a device like this, you should be sterilized before you even think about breeding! I love how AP got someone with the last name Breed to write this piece.


Devices scarce to protect kids in cars

By Allen G. Breed, AP National Writer | July 28, 2007

Your car has a sensor that tells you when you've left the headlights on or the keys in the ignition. It probably has another reminding you and your passengers to buckle your seat belts, and still another that sounds when the door is ajar. Some cars even to tell you when the tires need inflating.

But so far, there's no standard equipment to tell you that you've left a child in the back seat.

"How many people died because their keys were left in the ignition, headlights left on?" asks Janette Fennell, who tracks hot-car deaths as president and founder of Kids and Cars. "They have the opportunity to eradicate this as a cause of injury and death to children for a relatively low cost. Why not do it?"

"The issue is not the technology; the issue is getting it to market," says Jan Null, a San Francisco-area meteorologist who also tracks child hot-car deaths.

Requiring such technology would translate into tens of millions a year in added costs to carmakers. But a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in Washington, D.C., insists cost is not the issue.

"Safety is the industry's top priority, particularly when it comes to children," says Wade Newton, whose group represents BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Newton says no one has come up with a system that is immune to false alarms. He says the industry is constantly seeking safety improvements, but adds that all of these innovations "really work hand in hand with parental supervision."

There are products out there that could prevent most of these hyperthermia deaths. Among them:

--The Child Minder system replaces the car seat's harness clip with a "smart clip" synchronized to a key ring alarm. The unit is activated when the child is buckled in. As long as the child remains in the seat, an alarm will sound if the adult walks more than 10 feet from the automobile.

--NASA is on the verge of licensing its Child Presence Sensor, which replaces the clip with a weight-sensitive pad that fits under the car seat cushion. An alarm sounds 10 warning beeps if the driver moves too far away from the vehicle, and beeps continuously if the driver doesn't return within one minute. Engineers at the agency's Langley Research Center in Virginia developed the device after a colleague left his 9-month-old son in a hot car in May 2000.

--Volvo's flagship S80 sedan includes a Personal Car Communicator that can detect a heartbeat inside the vehicle and send a warning to the driver's wireless key fob. Volvo is marketing it as a safety option for women worried about back-seat attackers, not as a way to remind the driver of a child left behind.

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On the Net:

The Child Minder: http://www.babyalert.info/home.php

Sisters of Invention: http://sistersofinvention.com/index.html

How about a device that's already on your body and you pair it with a device that is already in your car?

Ready braindead parents? You use your eyes to carefully look into your REAR VIEW MIRROR and scan the back seat! It might take all of 5-10 seconds.

Of course this assumes that if you've got a small child or infant, your kid is in a car seat. If you're poor stupid trailer trash, and too stupid to have your child(ren) using seat belts, you may want to look longer to see where your child is located (down on the floor, in the trunk area, whatever).

Should you fail to do any of the above and your child dies and becomes yet another statistic of negligent parenting, your reproductive organs will be ripped out of you, without anesthesia.

Why should the rest of us pony up extra cash for yet more child safety features?

Forrest Gump was right. "Stupid is as stupid does."

And lets see...how many kids die because their parents accidentally left them in a car? Like maybe 10? More die because their parents intentionally leave them in cars, and of course even more than that die because their parents KILL THEM. Maybe we should focus more on encouraging people to THINK BEFORE THEY BREED so they don't end up beating and neglecting their children to death.

CNN has a poll on its home page that asks, "Should all new cars be fitted with sensors to help prevent children being left in a hot vehicle?" As of now, 61% said yes and 39% no.

I have no idea as to how much these sensors would add to the cost of cars, but I know that we should not pay for it!

I'm so sick of this world revolving around kids who were unlucky enough to be born to ill-equipped pahrunts or the pain in the ass parents who think the world should be foam-padded just because they've chosen to breed.

I'm more concerned for the safety of my pets in the car, anyway.

So if they could explain how the child car safety bullshit would protect against this intentional event, that'd be great...


2 S.C. Kids Left in Car Later Found Dead

Tuesday July 31, 2007 3:31 PM

HANAHAN, S.C. (AP) - Two toddlers who had been left in a hot car while their mother was at work were later found dead, their bodies wrapped in trash bags under an apartment sink, authorities said Tuesday.

Autopsies were scheduled Tuesday to determine the causes of death of the 1-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, Berkeley County Coroner Glenn Rhoad said. Their mother had taken them to work Monday and left them in her car all day as the temperature outside rose to 88 degrees, he said.

The mother was taken to a hospital after she made comments about hurting herself, said police Lt. Michael Fowler.

``The mother was distraught,'' Fowler said. ``The detectives will be busy following up on her whereabouts and those of the children over the last two days or so.''

Police didn't immediately respond to a call seeking additional comment Tuesday. The identities of the woman and children were not immediately released.

Hanahan is about 15 miles north of Charleston.

Again, I'm all for low-tech solutions for a problem such as this. Since many moos and duhs are illiterate, have a picture (recent) of the little sprog, sitting in the car seat. Attach this picture with masking tape to the dashboard of the vehicle being driven, then next to the picture (left side) of sprog, a picture of a truck. In words, that would mean, "Pick up baby."

Easy AND relatively cheap solution. OR have child stay at home with a babysitter while you tool around town (granted, that may take some money from your alcohol, drug, cigarette/chewing tobacco, cable TV, junk food habits - but we all have to make sacrifices occasionally - and isn't it better than having those pesky policemen/women constantly at your house? - besides all those future court appearances would take time away from aforementioned addictions, and or sleeping in, watching soaps, gabbing on the phone all day, whatever else it is that trailer trash do, rather than taking good care of their kids.

Feh, if you find out why this trailer trash bitch killed her kids, please post. Too lazy/cheap to hire a babysitter? No way you FORGET you have two kids in your car. Absolutely NO WAY!

Put this subhuman in a car, roll up all the windows and drive her ass to Arkansas for its 90+ degrees (including matching humidity).

I'd also like to know how old that skank was. My guess is 18 or 19, if that.

Please let there be a special place in hell for her, Jebus.

I saw Nancy Grace on tv last night, foaming at the mouth, per usual. They didn't have many facts about the woman who allegedly left her two kids in the car. They showed video of the woman, handcuffed, being led to a police car.

I checked the Internet this morning, and there were no new stories about the autopsy results (the autopsies were supposedly done Tuesday).

I just wish Nancy would go to Washington, D.C. and demand legislation that makes it a privilege not a right, to have kids.

All she does it verbally abuse any guests she has on her show who don't agree with her, and they must show 100 commercials for every 30 minutes that show is on.

It's just that children's deaths are temporarily bemoaned, used as new bites, then forgotten.

Then there's a big hew and cry when the next child is killed.

Nancy Grace is an acidic shrew.
I can not believe her womb would be capable of sustaining life.

catmeow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CNN has a poll on its home page that asks, "Should
> all new cars be fitted with sensors to help
> prevent children being left in a hot vehicle?" As
> of now, 61% said yes and 39% no.

That poll is skewed, anyhow. If the word "hot" was taken out of the question, the sense of urgency in it would disappear and I think the results would be a lot more lukewarm.

I don't think I actually want to encourage parents to feel safe taking their kids everywhere they go. I've met too many new parents who have this unfounded idea that they're going to have a child and it's only slightly going to change their lives. That they're going to be able to go to the movies and concerts and to their friends' houses and out to eat just like they always did, and if that means bringing the kid along to the discomfort of others then so be it!

In Norway, where shops are small and aisles narrow in order to maximize the amount of floor space used for commerce, many business owners have put up signs declaring that strollers are simply not allowed. I thought the strollers on the sidewalks of Oslo were enormous until I saw the SUV strollers in the US! I wish more big-city businesses would ban the things. I went to this teeny-tiny little Taiwanese restaurant near Boston the other day (you know, the kind where you can hardly push your chair back without bumping somebody) and this completely appalling couple came in pushing an enormous stroller, which they then camped in the aisle where it got in everybody's way. The baby cried the entire time, of course. Thankfully, a restaurant that full is loud enough to mask the wailings of a child (who was no doubt upset by the crowd, the noise, and the heat).

I don't get it. Yeah, I've locked my keys in the car before, I've even left my lights on. But how do you forget a CHILD??

See, from outside the car I can't always see when my keys are in the ignition. In broad daylight, I can't always see that the lights are on. And the beeper doesn't usually work for the keys, and the one for the lights is either nonexistant or not working (hey, the car's 15 years old). But a child is LARGE and LOUD!! Hello!!!

And really, it's only the keys and lights; I've never even accidentally left my frozen lunch in the car before.

(and yeah, now my steering wheel has a sign that says "LIGHTS OFF???")

I checked on a news website this am and found out that the skank, Semetta Heyward, also has a 13-year-old son who lives with her ex-husband (I'm sure the son is thanking his lucky stars he's alive!). She also gave birth to a baby this past January, and gave that child up for adoption. (Why did she just have ONE moment of lucidity this year? AND why didn't she have a tubal, while she was shitting out yet another sprog?)

The website also mentioned that she had called her workplace to tell them that her babysitter was unavailable that day. She was told to go to work or face getting fired.

At this point, why couldn't she have, as a last resort, checked the yellow pages? They have babysitting services that take care of kids for one day (some may even take care of kids for parents who work 3rd shift ).

Again, as a parent, worst case scenario, do you lose your job or kill your kids? For me, that would be a no brainer. But first I'd call everyone I could think of to babysit (and pay an exorbitant amount if I had to), and if I couldn't find someone, then I'd stay home. That's it.

I can't wait to find out what type of work this bitch did.

And I'm sure this will, some how, be her employer's fault. Mr. Employer, being so unreasonable and all, to expect their employees to be at work.

She was probably one of those pain in the ass parents who called out sick all the time for kid issues, and that's why they told her be here or you're out.

Too true, KFLL. This bimbo seems to be incredibly reprodutively irresponsible, and I'd be surprised if she had shown up to work even 25% of the time, blaming her kids, probably. It's not the kids' fault if she was too stupid to have only the number of kids she could reasonably feed/care for. In her case, I doubt if she could have cared for one.

Eugenics/sterilization should be used in this moo's case, as far as I'm concerned.

I just checked on injuryboard.com and the skank has lawyered up. She's 27-years-old (so she had that 13 year old kid when she was around 14 - charming).

Sounds like a former welfare whore. I hope they fry the bitch.

I hope she fries just for being such a fucking slut and getting her dumb self knocked up so young.

When I was 14 I was still playing with Barbie's, riding my bike, and teaching dance.

Comments on the subject of devices that exist to keep brats from croaking because of their lazy breeders: http://www.topix.net/forum/family/TQNG4STJ4G9QIO1P3

Okay, I did not hear this story, but from what I gather here....PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE tell me that she did not INTENTIONALLY take her kids to work and leave them in the car because she couldn't get a babysitter.

That said...y'know, I feel sorry for someone if the babysitter cancels, but if she was told "get your ass to work or get fired," I'm guessing that was like the thousandth time she missed work because of the sproggen and the Powers That Be at her workplace were tired of it...

From what I've read of this story, she did intentionally take her kids to work and leave them in the car for about 12 hours instead of getting a babysitter, family member, friend or even, say leaving a window open, checking on them or anything like that.