Backseat child alert

Every time a driver gets in a car, there are automatic reminders, messages, beeps. ‘Fasten your seat belt, keys are in the ignition, the side door is open’. Newer vehicles even have cameras to aid the driver in backing out safely.

Not long ago, cars did not talk back to us, but now these messages are accepted as common course with the responsibility of getting behind a wheel.

It makes sense, then, to require automobile manufacturers to install one more safety message — back-seat child alerts.

A warning to check the back seat for a child in a rear-facing seat, unseeable from the driver, could save a child’s life.

To check the back seat for your infant or toddler when you leave the car or school bus would seem a no-brainer. But even the best-intentioned parent or driver can become distracted or go on auto pilot. It has happened in Bahrain.

In 2013 a five-year-old Bahrani child died after being left on a school bus for six hours with outside temperatures soaring above 30 degrees Celcius.

When the outside hits that temperature, the inside of a vehicle can double that reading within an hour.

A bill requiring an alert in vehicles is to be introduced this month in the US and if adopted would see vehicles in the Gulf region have the same alert system.

Senator Richard Blumenthal was prompted by a tragedy close to home. In 2014, a Ridgefield father-of-three, drove to work with his 15-month-old son in a back-seat carrier. After getting to work, he did not notice the child was still in the seat.

Only when Seitz went after work to pick up Benjamin from nursery and learned that he was never dropped off, did the father realise - to his horror - that his son was still in the car.

The mental jolt of an alert for the driver to check the back seat might have prevented the tragedy.

Blumenthal’s bill will require all new vehicles to come equipped with such an alert.

At least one car manufacturer is not waiting. General Motors added a rear-seat reminder to select 2017 and 2018 models. ‘Rear Seat Reminder — Look in Rear Seat’ is the flashing dashboard message accompanied by five chimes when the ignition is turned off.

Some would argue that one more chime and flashing message is a nuisance. Maybe so, but potentially saving a child’s life is worth hearing a warning bell for a moment.