Mark Pelletier, a master electrician working for a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Minnesota, has invented a car alarm that may be able to save the lives of the dozens of children who die due to hyperthermia each year in the United States.
It’s really sad to hear of accounts of children dying of hyperthermia after being shut up in a car on a warm day. Small children heat up very quickly because of their size, making them especially vulnerable to dehydration and heat stroke. On a hot day, the temperature in a closed car rises rapidly. If the car is unfortunately unventilated, the child is at danger of getting dehydrated in a very short time.
Thanks to Mr. Pelletier’s patent-pending invention, such cases may be reduced or even completely eliminated. New York Times describes the invention:
One of those is Mr. Pelletier, who after watching a television news report of a child’s death several years ago, decided to focus on the problem, approaching the automobile as he would a piece of industrial machinery. He came up with a programmable circuit board that turns on motion-detecting sensors when a closed-up car reaches a certain temperature (say, 88 degrees). If motion is detected, an alarm goes off.
We do hope that this invention would help to save lives (and of course, make a tidy profit as well 😉
Read: Crying Out When a Child Cannot [NYTimes.com]
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Mark P. Where is GM now in 2007 with this technology – I am so sad about another recent report of a 15 month old dying in a car. I have an idea that could work. It has to be simple and inexpensive, otherwise parents will be in the “it won’t happen to me” camp.
How can we know more about the product and if already in use where can I purchase it?
Thanks
Elliot