Preventing hot car deaths

As we head into the dog days of summer, the heat is turning up. Here on the Coast, the heat indices will be well into the 100s through the end of the week and you need to keep safety in mind while you enjoy the sunshine.
According to noheatstroke.org, 723 children have died in the U.S. since 1998 as a result of being left in hot cars. That averages out to 37 of these tragedies a year.
Lieutenant Chris De Back with Biloxi Police Department is urging local parents to adjust their routines to include checking the backseat before leaving the car in the heat. “Whether it’s a pet or a child, our lives are never too busy for them. One way to avoid it, certainly there’s little things you can do like leave a stuffed animal on your front seat or tie a ribbon to the steering wheel or something to give you that reminder to hey check the back seat. One of the things that me and my wife do is we text each other ‘hey, I just dropped my son off.’ So, we’ll know the other person did that.”
On June 7th, Congressman Tim Ryan from Ohio introduced the Hot Car Act of 2017 which aims to require cars to come equipped with a system for alerting the driver if a child is left in the backseat after the car is turned off.